Nolite Bello
by Senatvs Popvlvsqve Romanvs
Summary: Three years after the fall of the Enclave, the Lone Wanderer, now a Sentinel, is sent with Sentinel Sarah Lyons to reestablish contact with the Lost Hills Bunker However, when they are captured by the NCR, they get dragged into the war over New Vegas.
1. Nostalgia

**Hey there. This is my first Fallout fic. Sadly, I have two other stories to juggle with, so updates may be sparse, but I wanted to get this one out. It's not the most original idea ever, but I had come up with it not long after I started playing NV, and after 50 hours or so , I'm still not finished the main questline. At the time of writing, I'm still only on For The Republic, Part II and I am starting the segment to deal with Mr House. Obviously, I need to finish the game before I can finish this one. But I'll get there eventually. Seeing as the Hunting Rifle was one of my favourite weapons in-game, and NV vastly improved it, the LW has a Scoped Hunting Rifle. The load outs for both the LW and the Courier will reflect what I always use. The title of the story is Latin for "Not Your War" (according to Google anyway ;)), which I thought was a nice touch seeing we are going against the Legion, who are inspired on the Legions of the Roman Empire. I know this chapter fells quite angsty, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to start it in the Capital Wasteland. **

* * *

**Nostalgia**

_"What the fuck am I doing here?"_ Jim thought to himself; staring at the large vault door in front of him, the number 101 was painted at its centre. The number was engraved in his mind. Its legacy was almost haunting him. He took another large gulp of whiskey, in another feeble attempt to take the pain away.

The past three years for 22 year old Jim, otherwise known as the "Lone Wanderer" in the Wasteland, had been, by far, the hardest of his life. He was forced to fight his way out of Vault 101, the only home he had ever known. He had lost his father, and watched him die in front of him so that he could live. He activated Project Purity and made his father's dream a reality: fresh drinking water for all. He destroyed the Enclave with help from the Brotherhood of Steel. It has been three years. Now, the Lone Wanderer rose to the prestigious rank of Sentinel in the Brotherhood, a rank previously only ever held by Sarah Lyons, daughter of Elder Lyons and commander of Lyons' Pride. He also became second in command of Lyons' Pride, which some saw as somewhat inappropriate as many in the Brotherhood knew that he and Sarah were in a "relationship", but he was unchallenged out of respect, because of what he had done for the Wasteland and the Brotherhood itself. After attaining his position, Jim began to move some his personal effects from his house in Megaton to the Citadel. It was there he came across all of his belongings from his previous life in the Vault. His jumpsuit, the BB gun and baseball bat and two pictures: one of him and his father on his 10th birthday, and one of him and Amata Almodovar. The picture was taken six years earlier in the Mess hall, after their G.O.A.T exam and Jim steering away Butch's jeering gang away from Amata. He remembered a wave of despair hitting him at the thought of the life he left behind. He remembered her words clearly, after he saved the vault from a civil war,

_"I'm sorry, you're a hero, but you have to leave."_

Jim knew that she was right. He left several months before, killing several security personnel in the process. Once he walked back into the vault, he knew that only a couple of people would be happy to see him. Even as he was helping the rebels, he noticed several vault residents giving him scornful looks. Jim knew that the wasteland had changed him. But none of that made the feelings of heart break any easier when Amata told him that he couldn't stay. As he sat in the cave, drinking and messing with his weapons, Jim pondered on the possibility that he was going insane. During patrols with the Pride, on several occasions, he could have sworn that he saw a group of people wearing the distinctive blue Vault jumpsuits. That led him to his next thought: the Brotherhood. They had eventually offered him a home that he thought he could never have again. With the Brotherhood's resources, he was able to hone the skills that came naturally to him: Weapons, Stealth and Maintenance. It also allowed him to improve on other skills such as Science and Medicine, which followed in his father's footsteps. In three years, he accomplished along with the Brotherhood the annihilation of the Enclave, the eradication of the Super Mutants in the DC Metropolitan area and the activation of Project Purity. Apart from sporadic Raider or Talon Company disturbances, the Capital Wasteland was secure. That's one hell of a hymn sheet Jim thought, cleaning some dirt off of his Power Armor.

Then, the old wooden door behind him opened, Jim immediately drew his sidearm at his new guest, although he already knew who it was before he even turned around. The person, like Jim, was dressed fully in T-45d Power Armor and had a Laser Rifle slung over their back. Jim smirked and lowered his weapon.

"I had a funny feeling that you would look for me." Jim said, staring back at the vault. The person sighed and lifted off their helmet.

"Jim, what are you doing here?" Sarah Lyons asked, genuine concern was in her voice.

"Good Question" Jim said, still staring at the vault, "but, funnily enough, I've been asking myself that for the past few hours." Sarah sighed, and put her hand on his shoulder

"Look Jim, if you need to talk, I'm here for you. We aren't in the Citadel. What we say can easily stay between us." Sarah said softly. Jim didn't know what he loved more about Sarah, the battle hardened warrior or the soft woman she was on the inside. He sighed as he caved in. He lifted his Scoped Hunting Rifle off of the ground. Under the butt stock was a folded piece of paper, which he gave it to Sarah. It was the picture of the 16 year old Jim with Amata.

"She's pretty." Sarah bleakly commented, Jim laughed softly

"You're jealous" he stated with a smug smile

"I am not!" Sarah shouted, punching his arm, but instantly regretting it due to his Power Armour.

"Anyway, her name is Amata. She was my only friend in the Vault. In that place, friends like her didn't come along that often. Ironically, her father was the Overseer, who's running of the Vault was more like a police state. She loved him dearly, and was loyal to him, yet she didn't agree with his strategy of running the place, and his treatment of me. Anyway, three years ago, my dad left the Vault, and Amata wakes me, gives me a gun and tells me that I had to get out, or that her father would kill me. On my way out of the vault, I find her getting interrogated by her father and his security chief about where I am. I saw the look on that bastard's face; he was prepared to torture his own daughter. Sadly, if I had killed him, she would have never forgiven me. I got the password out of him and escaped from the Vault. I tried to get her to come with me, but she wouldn't leave. After Project Purity was taken over by the Enclave, I ran into a radio beacon from the vault. Amata needed my help. After I returned to the Vault, I found two factions. Those who supported the policies of the Overseer, and those were against them, you can probably guess who led the Rebels. It took a good deal of time and some elbow grease, but I convinced the Overseer to step aside and allow Amata to take his place. Once I reported back, I was told that I was a hero, but I had to leave, for good. I knew she was right, the wasteland had changed me. After what I had done and seen in the Wasteland, I knew I couldn't fit back into Vault society. But I was still bitterly disappointed. And so I left and continued doing my thing. I know that I don't need to tell you what we did. Recently, I found my old stuff in my house over in Megaton. It all came back. During a couple of Pride patrols, I saw those blue jumpsuits and I got flashbacks. This picture haunts me, yet I find it hard to stop looking at it. To sum all of that up, I think I'm going nuts." Jim finished with a weak smile. Sarah was a great listener, she didn't interrupt once, nor did she look detached or bored.

"I think you can't let go of the past, Jim" she said truthfully. "What is going on is completely understandable though. Six years ago, you had no idea of a life outside the vault. Now look what you have accomplished for the Brotherhood, for the Wasteland. I watched you walk into that chamber and, at the time, it looked like you were going to give your life for the good of the entire wasteland." she said. Jim thought back to that fateful day in the Jefferson Memorial.

_"Well then" Sarah started, staring at the Purifier, "Who will start the purifier?" she bleakly asked the group of Paladins and Knights. Beside her, Jim also stared at the purifier. He couldn't get the memories of his last visit out of his head. He turned and looked at the soldiers beside him. Even through their helmets, he could see their fear; he could see them considering to go into the chamber, even though every single one didn't want to. He took a small step forward_

_"I'll do it." he said softly. He looked at Sarah, he found genuine surprise on her face, a few tears were welling up in her eyes, but ultimately, she understood why he thought that he had to do this. Jim walked forward into the chamber and sealed the door. He heard his Geiger counter going insane. Once he had sealed the door, Sarah rushed forward towards the door. Jim stared at the 10 digit control panel in front of him. He heard his father's words in his head. _

_"'And he said unto me, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life, freely.' Revelation 21:6" _

_He pushed the three digit combination into the control panel, and he heard the purifier power up. However, he heard his Geiger counter becoming more and more active. He knew this was the end. He felt his body shutting down as the radiation progressed through his body. With his last ounce of strength, he turned around, falling to his knees in the process, and dragged himself to the door, he saw Sarah standing there, her palm outstretched against the window, the tears were now flowing freely. Jim lifted his hand and matched hers from his side. He slowly let darkness consume him. _

Jim sighed; he knew Sarah was right; he had to let the Vault go.

"Sarah, you're right." Jim said, looking back at her. "I have to it let go, it won't be easy though"

"I never said that it would be, Jim" Sarah replied. Jim just smiled and gave her a kiss.

"Thanks." he told her sincerely. "Now, what did your dad want?" he asked. Sarah gave him a look of confusion

"How did you-?" she started

"Relax Sarah, I just know these things" Jim said

"Well, my dad wants to see us about an assignment" Sarah stated

"_Us_ us or the Pride" Jim asked

"Us as in me and you. Before you ask, no, I don't know what it's about." Sarah said. Jim came to a realization

"Aw no, he doesn't want grand children now, does he?" Jim asked cautiously. Sarah laughed

"Well, knowing him, he would like grad children at some stage, but somehow, I don't think that's what this is about." Sarah replied with a smug smile, Jim shrugged

"It was worth a try. I think we'd better get going then. It's quite a trek back to the Citadel." Jim said.

"No need, there's a Vertibird waiting for my signal." Sarah replied. Jim just shook his head, he should've known. He put on his Power Armor helmet, slung his Hunting Rifle over his back and keeping his Chinese Assault Rifle slung across his chest. Sarah did the same and they both walked towards the door. Before he opened the door to the Wasteland, Jim turned towards Sarah.

"Again, thanks Sarah. I guess I just needed to let it out and talk to someone about it rather than drinking myself to death." Jim said

"Anytime Jim" Sarah replied. Jim then opened the old wooden door to the Capital Wasteland and they started their journey home to the Citadel.

Once they had gone 20 metres or so, both of them began to feel a small rumble below their feet

"Jim, you feel that?" Sarah asked. Jim didn't answer at first; he turned around slowly towads the door to the cave. The rumbling stopped after 10 seconds.

"Oh no." Jim said in disbelief "It's the vault. Get behind those rocks." he said, pointing to the high rocks to his right. They both moved behind the rocks and crouched down. They both switched to their power armor radios as a means of communication.

After 30 more seconds, the rumble started again. The Vault was closing. Then, they heard the old wooden door to the cave open. Jim slowly peeked over the rocks. There were 10 vault dwellers, all dressed in the same generic blue jumpsuits. They all had backpacks slung over their backs and some were armed with 10mm pistols. They were lead by none other than Amata Almodovar.

"Goddamn it, that's just great." Jim muttered

"What?"

"It's a trading party, by the looks of it. Amata's leading it." Jim stated. He heard Sarah quietly chuckling.

"Hey!" he said, giving her a small nudge in the back. "Well, I think you should move out." Jim suggested

"And say what?" Sarah asked

"I dunno, I'm sure you'll think of something. I'll be right behind you. I don't exactly want to reveal myself straight away." Jim said.

"Okay" Sarah replied. She took a small look around the rock face, and stepped out, a few seconds later; Jim followed, and made sure that Sarah's back covered his vault issue Pip Boy. The vault dwellers were surprised by the sudden appearance of the power armor clad soldiers, some were visibly shaking as they stared at their faces; it was as if they were sub-human. Some of the vault dwellers lifted their pistols and aimed them at Sarah, which she did not even acknowledge.

"Don't even think about it. It won't be enough to even make a scratch, so order your people to lower your weapons." she told Amata, who slowly nodded and told them to lower their weapons.

"Who are you?" Amata asked

"I'm Sentinel Sarah Lyons, I'm with the Brotherhood of Steel." she replied, going with the simplified option considering where these people came from. As expected, Amata gave her a confused look.

"The what?" she asked

"The Brotherhood of Steel. We are an organization whose roots lie in the old US military. Here in the Capital Wasteland, our main focus is the search for pre-war technology. We also cover the safety of wastelanders and traders and security for the distribution of water. You know, it's funny that I was in the neighborhood to feel the tremors of your door opening." Sarah said

"What is that?" Amata asked

"The last time I saw a person like you, in one of those jumpsuits, was about three years ago. The scrawny kid looked as if he couldn't survive five minutes in the Wasteland. In the end, he ended up saving our lives." Sarah said, trying her hardest to mask the awkwardness. For a moment, she saw recognition in Amata's eyes.

"What happened to him?" she asked with interest. Sarah hesitated for a second, but then took a small step back.

"He's right here." Sarah stated. When she moved back, she revealed the signature Pip Boy that was attached to Jim's left wrist. Once Amata noticed the pip boy, she instantly knew who it was and started to shake her head in disbelief.

"No, it can't be!" she said, refusing to believe that this was the man that she effectively sent into exile three years before.

"Hey Amata" Jim simply started, taking a few steps forward.

"Jim?" she whispered

"Yeah." Jim replied "It's me."

"What...what happened to you?" she stuttered, pointing at the power armor.

"Oh, this old thing? It's power armor. Nothing to worry about." he said

"I'm sorry" Amata said

"Why?" Jim asked

"I sent you into exile. Vault 101 was your home, and you saved it from a potentially bloody civil war. You were a hero to the entire vault." she said. Jim started to walk slowly towards her.

"No, Amata, you were right to send me away. In my initial escape, I killed a couple of security guards. When I returned a month later, I was a different person. I had only been in the Wasteland a month and I had already seen some of the worst things a man could see. I had to watch my father die in front of me. When I returned, only you and a few others were happy to see me. I just got looks of distain from everyone else. When I got kicked out, I was allowed to continue doing what was best for everyone in the Wasteland. My father's dream of fresh drinking water for all became a reality. I became a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. I helped bring relative peace to this god-forsaken place. All of that wouldn't have happened if I stayed in the Vault." By now, Jim was standing right in front of Amata, and he could see the tears flowing down her cheeks. Behind the helmet, he could feel a few of his own too. Jim put a hand on her shoulder, but then moved it up to her cheeks and slowly wiped the tears away.

"It's not your fault. I could never have fitted back into vault society. Not after what I did and what I had seen. Right now, I'm sure that you are doing a better job than your dad ever could manage. We were never meant to be. I'm truly sorry. See you around Amata, I really don't want to make it goodbye." Jim said softly. He let his hand linger for several moments. He then turned and walked back, and he heard Amata break down into to tears, and several of the vault residents went to her aid. Jim turned around and walked back towards Sarah. She was on the radio to the Vertibird transport.

_"You found him?"_ the pilot asked

"Yeah, he's right here. Could you pick us up and bring us back to the Citadel?" Sarah asked

_"Roger that, we'll be there in a minute, out."_ the pilot replied. No sooner than a minute later, a Vertibird VTOL aircraft came into view and landed on the main road. Jim and Sarah moved towards the aircraft. Before he boarded, Jim looked back at the group from the Vault, who were standing in awe at what they were watching, as they had only ever seem craft such as this in their wildest dreams. Once they were aboard, the pilot lifted off and headed towards the Citadel.

"Well" Sarah started "That went well."

"I wouldn't have called it a resounding success" Jim replied "The exit was dramatic though." he admitted jokingly.

"So, is that it?" Sarah asked "Are you going to just forget about the Vault?"

"As long as I have this thing on my wrist, no." Jim said, referring to his pip-boy. "I'll stop by every now and again, but now I have a more important life to live than the one I had three years ago."


	2. The Begining of a Long Journey

**The Beginning of a Long Journey**

After a relatively short flight, the Vertibird landed on the recently installed Vertibird landing pad on top of the Citadel, which was built in response to the large amount of Vertibirds that the Brotherhood recovered after the destruction of the Enclave. The vertibird then took off again and continued towards Rivet City, where the aircraft carrier's old flight deck was used as their base of operations.

The pair walked down the catwalk into the courtyard, and then into the A Ring. As they walked through the corridors towards the Den, several Knights and Paladins saluted them. They walked into the Den, Sarah continued on into the bunks while Jim got a Nuka Cola from the refrigerator and sat down on the couch while he waited for Sarah to get cleaned up for the meeting with her father. Jim started to relax a bit, putting his feet up on a table in front of him, when someone came to the door. It was Squire Arthur Maxton, the 13 year old descendent of Captain Roger Maxton, the US Army Captain who originally founded the Brotherhood after the Great War. He was trained personally by Sarah, whom Arthur developed a crush on. Once he found out that Jim was in a relationship with Sarah, he wasn't very happy about it.

_Oh, to be a kid again_ Jim thought

"Hey Arthur" Jim said pleasantly "What's up?" he asked.

"Where's Sarah?" Arthur asked. Jim resisted the strong temptation to roll his eyes

"She's in the back, getting cleaned up, why?" Jim replied

"The Elder wants to see you both" Arthur stated

"We know, I'm just waiting for Sarah." Jim replied

"What was that?" Sarah asked from the doorway, at the mention of her name. She was still wearing her Power Armor, but her blonde hair was untied and wet, she had a towel in her hand. Arthur looked like her was love struck, just as always.

"Sarah, your father uhh..." he stammered "...your father wants to see you and Jim."

"We know. Go and tell my father that we will be there in a few minutes." Sarah replied. Arthur hastily nodded and backed out. Once he was gone, Sarah rolled her eyes at Jim, who burst into quiet laughter.

"Give over Jim, we were all kids once." Sarah said. Jim continued laughing regardless. Once Sarah was ready, they left the Den and walked down the corridor towards the Great Hall. Despite the name, the Great Hall wasn't much bigger than any of the Citadels rooms, it was still the place where the Council held their meetings and where patrols got their mission briefings. Elder Owyn Lyons and Scribe Rothchild were waiting for them. On the wall behind them was a full size map of the pre-war United States.

"Sarah! Jim!" Elder Lyons said with a smile.

"Hey dad." Sarah replied. "What did you need to see us for?" Sarah asked

"Right, well, I'll let Scribe Rothchild fill you in." the Elder said, turning to Rothchild. Rothchild cleared his throat and began.

"I am just going to cut to the chase; it has been many years since our last communication with our headquarters at the Lost Hills Bunker in California. To put this simply, we want you to travel to the bunker and reestablish contact with Lost Hills, and report what we have accomplished, and what our current objectives are."

"Can't we just enlist the help of the Southern or the Mid-Western detachments?" Jim asked

"Sadly, no." Rothchild stated "Those detachments are not recognized by the Brotherhood. They have been dark for years, we don't even know if they still exist. If they could help us, I don't think they would be able to. Our only option is to send you two. The two of you represent the best that the Capital Wasteland detachment has to offer. There is no use in sending anyone but yourselves." Jim and Sarah looked at one another, both silently communicating. Jim nodded.

"Ok, we'll go. Is there anything that we should know?" Sarah asked

"Excellent!" Rothchild said happily "You shouldn't run into any trouble apart from Raiders or Tribals, which of couse, shouldn't be a problem for either of you. However, in our last communication with Lost Hills, they mentioned that a new force had arisen in the West." Rothchild then turned to the map. We think that this new group's operations are focused in this area." he said, pointing at the area around Arizona and Nevada. "It is because of this that you should detour around and come from the north and move through the Mojave Desert, past what will remain of Las Vegas. From there on, your main challenge will be avoiding the New California Republic's military, whose relations with the Brotherhood in the West is, or was, extremely strained. We have no reason to believe that tensions between the Brotherhood and the NCR have subsided since we were last in California. On the way, it would also beneficial if you look for other chapters of the Brotherhood that were sent out after us. They could provide assistance."

"Who will take command of the Pride while we are gone?" Sarah asked

"I believe Knight Captain Gallows has wanted a command for some time now." Elder Lyons answered "I believe he would be a more than able commander for Lyons Pride in your absence." Sarah nodded; she agreed that Gallows would lead the Pride well.

"Who will deal with the Outcasts?" Jim asked. As a side job, Jim used his good relations with the Brotherhood Outcasts in an effort to negotiate a possible return to the main detachment in the Citadel, while still using their headquarters at Ford Independence as an outpost, as their main objective was now to search for pre-war technologies.

"No need" the Elder replied "I have only recently received word from Protector Casdin. He has accepted our final proposals, and that they would rejoin us within the next few weeks.

"That's great news!" Sarah said "Good work" she said, patting Jim on the back.

"And lastly, when do we leave?" Jim asked

"As soon as you are ready." the Elder replied "I believe that a Vertibird will take the two of you on the first leg of your journey, but after that, you are going to have to walk I'm afraid."

"Thank you father" Sarah said. Both Sarah and Jim stood up and gave him a salute.

"Be safe, both of you. Look out for one another, and work together. That's what both of you do best. You are a perfect match." the Elder said. Sarah just gave laughed awkwardly; Jim tried not to say anything for fear of showing his discomfort.

"I guess the last thing to say is good luck." the Elder said.

"Yes" Rothchild agreed "Good luck indeed. You are going to need it.".

Once Jim and Sarah left the Great Hall, Jim they turned back towards the Den to pack their supplies.

"I sure hope everyone in the Pride enjoys dawn raids on Talon Company camps or night patrols." Jim said, referring to Gallows' 'soldiering style'. Sarah laughed

"To be fair to the guy, his methods, while they are unorthodox, work." Sarah replied "What's the pool on his first name now?" she asked

"3500 caps, I think" Jim replied "That's what I call a pot. I'm surprised that he's been here longer than I have, and you don't even know his first name."

"You can't blame him for keeping to himself. Sarah replied, she then sighed "I don't think we can carry enough supplies for us to survive this length of a journey." she stated

"Maybe so, but we can scavenge. Along the way, we'll come across abandoned towns and hostile camps, where we can find food, water and ammo in abundance. Trust me Sarah; I've been through all of this before, since I am the Lone Wanderer after all." Jim said reassuringly. "When do you want to leave?" he asked

"In the early hours of the morning, what do you think?"

"Yeah, I can live with that." Jim replied. Once they were finished packing, Sarah went off to find Gallows to inform him of their absence, and that he was chosen to be commander of the Pride while they were gone. Jim decided to get some sleep before they left in the morning. He wondered what the West coast was like. He had heard descriptions and stories from Sarah, which in turn came from her father. One of her stories included someone known only as the 'Vault Dweller' and how Jim resembled him in so many ways. He had also read about the pre-war West coast from pre-war books he could find in the Arlington Library. There were mentions of a city called Las Vegas in Nevada, which Rothchild had mentioned. It was a city were gambling was legalized, and it was notorious as many people threw their money away in places known as "casinos". He also began to nurture the feeling that he had in his legs, as he knew from experience that by the time that they had finished their journey, it would take more than a few Stimpacks to restore the feeling again.

**Thanks for reading. From this point on, I will try to play down the relationship between Sarah Lyons and the LW, at least until the end. Next, we head over to the Mojave Wasteland with the Courier, Ivan, and Boone. Sorry in advance if it takes a while. I suppose the last thing that remains to be said is to review. **


	3. One Shot, One Kill

**Well, that was quick. I didn't see myself coming out with this chapter so quickly. I've decided to change the rating to M from now on, since in this chapter there's more brutal crucifixions (as opposed to the ones in-game, where people were tied to the cross.), and later on, we may see some torture, namely the Centurion that you interrogate at Camp McCarran.  
**

* * *

**One Shot, One Kill**

_Four Months Later_

It was high noon in the Mojave Wasteland; the temperature was reaching well over 100 degrees. Lying still on top of a hill, two snipers lay prone, observing their target. The first sniper was Ivan, a courier turned wanderer whose only objective, at least at first, was to find the man who had shot him in the head. In doing so, he got dragged into the war between the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion over the Mojave Wasteland, and more importantly, the city of New Vegas and the Hoover Dam. He was now becoming a local hero for the work that he was doing for the NCR.

The other sniper was Craig Boone, and ex-NCR sniper who served in the First Recon outfit of the military, which was legendary for its marksmen. He left the military and settled down in a small town called Novac with his wife, Carla. Everything seemed relatively peaceful, until Carla was betrayed by someone in Novac and was sold to Legion slavers. Not only did they enslave Boone's wife, but they also enslaved his unborn child. Boone tracked the slavers, but he had no hope of single handily breaking her out. He did the only thing he could, which was to kill her before she was sold off. His logic was that they were better off dead than enslaved; he definitely didn't want that for anyone in his family, especially his unborn child. Thanks to Ivan, he found out who sold her in the first place, Jeanie May Crawford, and killed her. Ever since, he had been Ivan's companion, teaching him the art of long range warfare. On this occasion, Boone decided to let Ivan be the shooter, while Boone was his spotter.

Their current assignment from the NCR was to secure the town of Nelson, which was a forward operating base for the NCR that overlooked the Colorado River. However it was overrun by legionaries from Caesar's Legion, which pushed the NCR back to Camp Forlorn Hope. The Legion captured several NCR troopers and crucified them on crosses that were erected in the centre of town. Crucifixions were one of the defining traits of the Legion. Rather than executing prisoners outright, the legion nailed them to the cross before sun rise, and they were simply left to die. Combined with the searing heat of the Mojave Desert, it was a horribly lethal combination. And that was just for the male prisoners. Their first secondary objective was to rescue the crucified troopers and get them back to Camp Forlon Hope for medical attention. Their second secondary objective was to eliminate the leader of the legionaries who occupied the town, a man known only as 'Dead Sea'.

Small beads of sweat slowly trickled down Ivan's head. He was growing impatient. The first stage of the assault involved an NCR fire team launching an assault from the north. But they were late, and Ivan was growing impatient.

"Where the hell are they?" Ivan asked quietly, frustration was evident in his voice.

"Ivan, you need to learn to have patience." Boone said while looking through his binoculars "I once stalked the previous Legate, Graham I think, for three days before I took the shot."

"But you still missed" Ivan retorted. A legend stated that there were at least five confirmed kill shots on the Legate by First Recon snipers, yet he still led the Legion in the first battle for Hoover Dam in 2277.

"That's not the point. My point is that you need to learn the best time to take your shot. It would be useless if you fired now, because every legionary would be looking for you, rather than concentrating on an assault on their base."

"Yeah, you're right" Ivan replied. As if almost on cue, the leader of the NCR squad began talking on the radio.

"Courier, this is Sergeant Cooper. We're ready to begin our assault on Nelson. Are you ready for us?" Ivan resisted the temptation to nag to Sergeant over the radio.

"Yeah, we are on top of a hill overlooking the base. You are clear to move in, we will provide cover." Ivan said over the radio.

"Roger that" Cooper replied. Ivan quickly checked his rifle one last time, pulling the magazine out to check that he was using armor piercing bullets, as he didn't want his first shot ricocheting off of the armor that some of the legionaries were wearing. AP ammo would also make short work of the recruits; Ivan saw them as cannon fodder who basically wore robes.

The town below the snipers became a hive of activity. NCR troopers launched a salvo of missiles from the northern hills, destroying several houses in the town, along with their legion occupants. This move surprised the Legion, as they had set up their defensive perimeter facing the western road that lead into the base. They also had received no word of activity from their northern guards, who were silently killed several hours before by Ivan and Boone, so they kept their perimeter facing west. However, they quickly overcame this surprise and leapt into action, swiftly moving through the base to meet the NCR assault force head on. The assault quickly became a prolonged firefight. The main problem for the NCR at first was the remaining Legion snipers, who were stationed in the guard towers facing the western road

"Sniper in the western guard tower." Boone stated, Ivan aligned his scope's crosshairs on the sniper's head

"I got him" Ivan replied.

"Fire" Ivan put pressure on the trigger, and the .308 round and left his rifle. It hit the sniper in the head, and he was dead before he even heard the shot.

"Hit" Boone said. Ivan operated the bolt and shifted his aim towards the main battle. He immediately he saw a legion recruit charging for a trooper, machete in hand. The trooper happened to be reloading his M16. Ivan didn't need Boone to spot this one, he pulled the trigger and shot the recruit square in the back, his robe was no match for the high velocity AP round. After several more kills, a figure emerged from the barracks, shouting orders at the legionaries. His 'encouragements' were so loud that he could be heard over the gunfire. _"IF YOU DO NOT SUCCEED IN KILLING ALL OF THESE NCR DOGS, THE CAESAR WILL CRUCIFY EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND FEED YOUR ORGANS TO THE MONGRELS!"_ Ivan let out a small laugh.

"I think I have 'Dead Sea' in my sights, I can smell his Legion bullshit from here."

"Take the shot" Boone ordered. As Ivan was about to pull the trigger, Dead Sea turned in their direction and squinted. His eyes widened at the sight of the faint colour of red, the colour of the 1st Recon Beret, which both Boone and Ivan wore. Ivan pulled the trigger and watched as it landed in between his eyes. However, one of the legionaries witnessed this, and also looked in their direction. Ivan operated the bolt, adjusted his aim as quickly as possible and fired, but his haste threw his aim off, and the bullet landed in the legionaries' shoulder. He must have declared that there was a sniper, as several other legionaries turned and opened fire on the hill. The fire was inaccurate, but it was enough to get the two snipers to relocate. Ivan and Boone quickly picked up their equipment and slid down the hill. Ivan slung his Hunting Rifle behind his back and retrieved his M4 Marksman Carbine, complete with a camouflage paint coating, Boone retrieved a simple 10mm sub machine gun. Both men also harnessed their backpacks.

"Ready?" Ivan asked

"Let's go." Boone said coldly. There wasn't anything that he hated more than the Legion.

They moved around the hills that surrounded the town to avoid the direct route, which was mined. They came up on the western road and the guard tower where Ivan had killed the sniper. Thankfully, the recruits that were remaining hadn't had much training, as they seemed to have completely forgotten about Ivan and Boone and concentrated rather on their front flank, disregarding their rear.

_They must've assumed that we decided to go home. Stupid bastards_ Ivan thought. Ivan and Boone quietly made their way through the base, past the corpses of dead legionaries. They split up and moved to opposite ends of the base, each with a clear view of the legionaries on the opposite sides. Ivan lined up the shot on one of the legionaries, looked over at Boone and nodded. They unleashed a swarm of lead on the dug in legionaries. After they were confident they killed them all, they moved forward towards the assault force, which was also advancing. Suddenly, a legionary caught Ivan by surprise and rose up, yelling, holding a 9mm pistol in his hand. He was only able to let off one shot, which merely bounced off of Ivan's Combat Armor plating, before he was loaded with bullets from the assault force. Once he was killed, Ivan turned around and ran towards the crosses. Boone and half of the assault force followed him. The rest cleared the houses. Ivan stopped at one of the crosses and looked at the trooper. It was easy to see that he was dying. Sweat was tricking down his face and there were small drops of blood dripping from the nails that were dug into his arms and feet. It was sickening. The trooper's eyes opened, expecting to see a legionary mocking him, but he saw the face of the Courier. He smiled weakly.

"You're going to be okay, buddy." Ivan said reassuringly up at the trooper.

"I need some Med-X and a crowbar now!" Ivan shouted. Thankfully, the assault team came prepared. Ivan was handed five shots of the drug and a crowbar. He injected each shot into the trooper's leg and picked up the crowbar. He looked up at the trooper, who was shaking his head in pain; the med-x was making him drowsy.

"Okay buddy, stay with me. We are going to lever the nails out, okay?" Ivan said. The trooper nodded, and tightened his face with hope that it would prepare him.

"3...2...1" Ivan said. He levered the first nail out of the foot to a reasonable length to he could pull it out with his hands. The trooper screamed in absolute agony and began to cry. He heard to process repeated with the other two troopers beside him.

"You're doing great, buddy. One down, three to go." Ivan said as reassuringly as he could. Once Ivan was ready to pull out the final nail, the trooper was limp, his breathing was shallow. When Ivan pulled out the final nail, he caught the trooper on his shoulders and began to run towards the checkpoint on the western road.

"STRETCHER!" Ivan shouted towards the checkpoint "THIS MAN NEEDS A STRECHER!" One of the troopers turned and quickly assembled a stretcher. Ivan gently lowered the wounded trooper on to the stretcher and took the back to handles, while Boone took the forward two.

"Let's move Boone, we need to get back to Forlorn Hope." Ivan said, and they ran as swiftly as they could, hoping that they wouldn't run into hostile wildlife along the way. Eventually, they got back to the base, and they ran into the medical tent. Before they left for Nelson, Ivan helped Richards with his most serious casualties, so that he would have the capacity to treat the crucified troopers.

"Doc! We have a crucified trooper here." Ivan shouted. Richards sprung into action. Ivan and Boone set the stretcher down and lifted the trooper on to one of the beds, where the doctor began examining the trooper.

"How many Med-X shots did you give him?" Richards asked

"Five" Ivan replied. He then heard the other two troopers coming in behind him.

"Thanks Ivan, I'll take it from here." Ivan nodded and walked over to a chair. He reached into his backpack and took out a bottle of water, and threw some of it over his face to cool himself down and clean the sweat away. He poured some of it over his hands to clean the trooper's blood off of his hands. He also took large gulps of the water. It was anything but cold, but the purified water always made him feel better, especially in the desert heat rather than the dirty shit that some people tried to sell. Ivan then saw a figure standing over him. He looked up to find Major Polatli, the commanding officer of Camp Forlorn Hope and the person who asked for Ivan's help. He held out his hand, Ivan got to his feet and shook it.

"I just wanted to thank you personally for what you did today, Ivan. Polatli said, he held out a small bag, filled with bottle caps, Ivan took it.

"Thank you Major, don't mention it." Ivan told him

"If I may ask, is there a reason why you consistently help us? I understand that you were just a courier, but now you are the tipping balance in our war in the Legion, and you show more courage and dedication than even most Rangers."

"I was just a courier until I got shot in the head by an asshole chairman from the Tops Casino. After that, I got dragged kicking and screaming into the whole conflict. I never wanted to get involved in this; I just wanted answers about why I was shot in the head. It was when I walked through the remains of Nipton, passed the crucifixes, the smoldering and decapitated bodies, that I knew what needed to be done. I wanted to make a difference. The Legion, their methods, they are not right. While the NCR is far from perfect, at least they are trying to bring sound old world values back into existence." Ivan said

"What are you going to do now?" Polatli asked

"We are going to head back to McCarran, see if anyone needs to work done there." Ivan replied, harnessing his backpack and readying his rifles. "See you Major." Ivan said, nodding and he walked out, Boone was behind him. As they walked out of the camp, several soldiers saluted them. Ivan was never used to the whole saluting thing. Ivan and Boone walked west towards Camp McCarran; both men were respectfully silent during their travels, except during engagements. It was the way both of them liked it.

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**


	4. Prisoners of War

**Prisoners of War**

"Where's the Lost Hills bunker again?" Jim asked lazily. He and Sarah were walking almost aimlessly along on an old road in the middle of a small mountain range. For most of the journey, the two Sentinels traveled along Route 50, the old highway that cut through the entire country running from the Pacific coast of California to the Atlantic coast in Maryland, passing through Washington DC. The Vertibird flight gave them a good 500 mile start, but they still had over 2500 miles left to cover. After four months, they were in the deserts of Nevada, about twenty miles outside of Las Vegas. Once they had reached the Colorado/Utah state line, they took a long detour that led them around Utah and into the Northern Mojave Desert. While traveling through Colorado, they started to see strange things. They found villages completely deserted; some houses had half eaten food on their tables, among many other things. There was never any trace of their inhabitants, so Jim and Sarah looted supplies and moved on. As they reached the desert, both of them felt the heat starting to rise, and without the air-conditioning that their Power Armor offered, the suits would have become a grossly over-sized oven.

"It's northwest of the Hub, which is north of the remains of Los Angeles, the Boneyard. Once we reach Las Vegas, I'll know where I'm going. It took four hours to drive from LA to Vegas before the war, apparently. So it should only take us a few more days to get to California from the remains of Vegas." Sarah informed him.

"That's great." Jim stated sarcastically "Honey, please forgive my lack of enthusiasm for your sense of direction." Sarah laughed

"If we weren't together, I would've killed you where you stood months ago." Sarah replied. She didn't mean it, most of the time. Sometimes the guy was insufferable. Jim started to stare longingly at his Pip Boy. Ever since they left DC, his maps feature just displayed _NO DATA_. He made a mental note to find a vault in the Las Vegas area and download a map of the surrounding terrain, as his old one did in DC.

"You know Jim; just staring at that thing won't make a map come out of nowhere." Sarah stated.

"Yeah I know." Jim replied. His pip boy was only useful for telling the time and keeping track of their supplies. Jim then started to get the feeling that someone, or something, was watching them. He stopped and turned around, adjusting his assault rifle so that its stock rested on his shoulder. He scanned the rocky terrain around him, this wasn't the first time since they left that he has had this feeling, it was almost as if Talon Company was on his ass again. Ever since they detoured off of Route 50, something didn't feel right. Sarah walked several metres before she noticed that Jim had stopped.

"What is it?" Sarah asked softly. Jim didn't respond for several moments, but he then turned around and walked back towards Sarah.

"I don't know. It almost feels like someone is watching us. I've felt this way ever since we got off Route 50. Maybe I'm just being paranoid." Jim replied, trying to brush it off.

"No, I've been thinking about that too. I think we should lay low for the night. I spotted a cave on a ridge ahead of us, we should check it out." Sarah said. She was right; the sun was going low over the horizon. Although their T45-d Power Armor had night vision capability, it was common sense to travel during the day, rest at night. Night time in the post-apocalyptic United States was a very dangerous place.

"Obviously, we are going want to clear it. I don't want to fall asleep beside a Deathclaw nest." Jim joked. There was a convenient pathway up to the cave. Remarkably, the cave was deserted, and after laying discrete booby traps in the entrance and the cave itself, the cave became an effective one-night-only safe haven. While Jim was booby trapping the cave with fragmentation and plasma mines, Sarah had through the cave to set up their bedding. Sarah then came on the radio.

"Jim get over here, _now_." Sarah said. There was an obvious emphasis on the word now, so Jim quickly finished up and ran through the cave to find Sarah standing at the exit, she didn't have her helmet on.

"Sarah, what's-" Jim started. He cut himself off in mid sentence as he saw what was outside in the distance. The first thing Jim saw was an abundance of bright green lights, which was thanks to the green shade of his power armor night vision. When he took off his helmet, he was greeted with one of the most stunning vistas he had ever seen.

In the distance lay a large city, it was literally glowing in the dark thanks to the vast array of different coloured signs. Its crown jewel was the tall skyscraper at the city's edge, looking down on the rest of the city.

"Oh my god." Jim simply blurted out. "That's incredible."

"I know" Sarah replied "How is this even possible? Where is their power coming from? Why wasn't the city destroyed 200 years ago like every other city in the country?"

"I don't know, but I think we should stop, rest up for a few days and find out about Vegas before we move on towards California. This sight alone is enough to report back to the Citadel, we should gather as much intel as possible." Jim said.

"Yeah, but first, we need to rest. We can't go out there at night. God knows what it hunting out there. Who's on first watch?" she asked

"I'll take it. Two hour shifts?"

"Sounds good." Sarah said, taking off her backpack, which was more like a metal crate, off of the back of her armor and lay down on their makeshift bedding. Everything was set up so that if they were attacked, they could quickly load up and leave. Once Sarah was settled, she quickly fell asleep. Jim went out to the ridge with the view of the city. As with the entrance, there was a convenient passage down. He walked down to the bottom and concealed several mines under the dusty sand. About halfway down, he installed a frag grenade cluster alongside a rock, connected to a pressure plate, which he covered with as much dust as he could. It would make for a nice surprise for their hypothetical pursuers.

After several uneventful shifts, Jim was awoken at three in the morning to the sound of an explosion in the entrance. He received a shake from Sarah.

"Jim, we need to move!" Sarah shouted. He needed no further encouragement. He quickly harnessed his backpack, slung his hunting rifle over his shoulder and readied his Chinese assault rifle. Further into the cave, they could hear several male voices. The two Sentinels definitely didn't want to wait around to find out who they were. Their bedding was about 10 feet from the entrance to the ridge that overlooked Vegas.

"Come on, let's go!" Sarah said turning towards the exit and running out of the cave, Jim followed closely behind her. They avoided the concealed pressure plate and the mines at the bottom of the passage. They were now in a small valley, beyond which was the emptiness of the Mojave Desert. Behind them, there was the sound of a chain reaction of explosions. Whoever was in there had just passed the second line of traps, and they were not far behind them. Jim and Sarah began to run as fast as their power armor and their equipment would let them. However, Sarah noticed that there was another group on the rocks to their right. Behind them, they heard the sound of the grenade bouquet going off. Finally, a group of about seven men emerged from behind a line of rocks in front of them; their weapons were aimed directly at them. Jim and Sarah both abruptly halted and crouched, Jim aimed his assault rifle at the group to their front; Sarah aimed her laser rifle at the group above them on the rocks.

"Lower your weapons!" a man shouted "You are surrounded."

"Shit, shit, shit!" Jim said in frustration, he was right all along.

"We have no choice, they have the high ground." Sarah stated

They looked at one another and nodded. Both of them stood up and put their weapons on the ground, both of them took of them took off their helmets. A man separated himself from the group and began to walk towards them. Sarah noticed a strange look that several of the gunmen gave her once she took her helmet off.

_They are defiantly not into me_ she thought. The men around them were all dressed in a similar fashion. They all wore similar armor with thick shoulder plates, and a red cape. However, some didn't look to be wearing armor at all, and wore what looked to be robes. They all were armed with lever action rifles, revolvers or shotguns. Some even had machetes in their hand as opposed to a firearm. The man that was walking towards them stood out from the pack. He had a helmet crafted from a dog, which covered his almost his entire head. He had black goggles over his eyes.

"Well, well, well." he started. His voice was cold, slow and calculated. "What do we have here?" he asked nobody in particular. "It seems that we have captured a Brotherhood of Steel scouting party. The Kaisar will be most pleased." he said, a cruel smile formed on his face, but it diminished slightly as the sound of an explosion came from behind them at the base of the passage way leading up to the cliff. Jim just gave the man a smug smile, which was returned with a punch to the jaw. Jim spat out some blood from his mouth on to the sand.

"You." he stated, pointing at Jim, "You will be crucified immediately. You are useless to the Kaisar. Your girlfriend however..." he said, turning towards Sarah

"...she will make a fine slave. Or maybe I can have her for breeding." Sarah almost threw up, and spat in his face. The man slowly wiped it off of his face, and slapped Sarah.

"Your fellow 'brothers' in the Mojave Wasteland won't miss-" he was cut off in mid-sentence as he clutched his neck, making a choking sound. He fell to his knees as blood started to pour out of his wound. His men stood there stunned. When a second and third man was killed, confusion started to settle in. To their left, several men emerged from the rock face and opened fire on Jim and Sarah's captors. Both reacted quickly, keeping low and grabbing their weapons. Within a few minutes, all of their captors were dead. The group of three men came towards them. They all wore a specialized version of combat armor, a long trenchcoat and had a gas mask which had red optics, which glowed in the night. To Jim and Sarah's surprise, they aimed their weapons at them.

"Whoa, take it easy!" Jim said "We are not your enemy!"

"Tell that to the troopers that took HELIOS One." the ranger replied.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sarah asked

"Shut up" the ranger ordered. He turned his head over to one of his men.

"Check him" he ordered. One of the rangers walked over to the man with the dog helmet that had been in the taunting them. He turned his face over and looked at him.

"Confirmed" the ranger stated. He walked over to one of Jim and Sarah's previous captors and took a machete off of their body, he then beheaded the dead man, picked up the head and walked back. The commander then looked towards his other man, who was carrying a silenced sniper rifle.

"Secure them." he ordered. The sniper walked forward, took their weapons and tied rope around the wrists behind their back. Rather than carrying their helmets, the ranger put Jim and Sarah's helmets on after they had been restrained.

The appearance of the Brotherhood Paladins was very strange to the NCR Veteran Ranger. He noticed that the emblems on their power armor were slightly different to that of the regular Brotherhood units in the Mojave; they were also wearing an inferior version of power armor than that of the other units he had seen. The man's assault rifle was unlike that of any rifle he had seen, either in the Mojave or the Core Region, not to mention the fact that all of the Brotherhood Paladins that he had ever seen were wielding energy weapons, like the woman. It was all very strange; he'd love to see the interrogation reports.

"Okay, on your feet." the ranger ordered "Move it." Jim and Sarah were led towards Las Vegas in the distance.

"Where are we going?" Jim asked

"We're going to Camp McCarran, sunshine. There are people there who are going have questions for you two." the ranger replied.

**There are some things that may need explained. Jim and Sarah were referred to as Paladins because Sentinel is a rank that isn't used outside of the Capital Wasteland BoS. The ranger just assumed that they were Paladins. As you could probably gather, the guy that was taunting Jim and Sarah was Vulpes Inculta. I don't know the full extent of conquered Legion territory, so for the purpose of this story, the Legion controls Arizona, Utah, Nevada (east of the Colorado River) and some of Colorado itself. In the last chapter, I referred to some in-game weapons by real-world designations (M4, M16) just because they sound a lot better than their in-game counterparts. **

**Happy New Year! **


	5. Questions

**Updated 11/1/11: I removed some glaringly obvious errors like missing words or spaces in the wrong place, the fact that I did this late at night didn't help.**

**Questions**

After several hours walking, the Rangers and their prisoners finally arrived at Camp McCarran. Jim and Sarah were perplexed at the city of Las Vegas or rather 'New' Vegas according to the old, once famous signpost. Beyond the high wall that surrounded the downtown area of the city, which was made up of debris from before the war, music could be heard blaring loudly. The city itself looked to be undamaged by the nuclear bombardment of the Great War, and most of the damage seemed to be due to 200 years of neglect. The two Sentinels also took note of the flag that was flying outside the camp: a two headed bear with the words _NEW CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC_ written beneath it. They had been captured by the NCR before they had even reached to California.

_Explaining that to my father is going to be fun _Sarah thought. Beyond the shutter was a massive gathering of tents and military personnel. It was one of, if not the biggest, military establishments that either of them had ever seen. Its size rivaled that of the Citadel. Before they went any further, the ranger commander told them to stop. He walked towards a soldier who was waiting by the firing range. He was a black man, and he had a extensive beard. He was also wearing a beret, which signified his officer status. The ranger pulled out the head that one of his men dismembered earlier and presented it to the officer

"Major Dhatri, here you go sir." the ranger said, the officer looked satisfied

"Ah, if it isn't the one and only Vulpes Inculta. What's the matter asshole? Cat got your tongue?" Dhatri asked the head. "Good work. You'll find substantial bonuses in your pay-checks." he told the commander, he then noticed the two Brotherhood members standing by the other two rangers.

"Where the fuck did they come from?" Dhatri asked. There wasn't so much as a peep from the Brotherhood of Steel since the HELIOS One battle years before, most assumed that the Brotherhood packed up and went back to their bunker in California to regroup. This changed everything, but sadly, the NCR has now got much bigger fish to fry with the Legion across the river.

Behind them, the two Sentinels noticed that they were drawing attention in the base; they could see a lot of soldiers poking their heads out of their tents to see what the commotion was about. They also noticed that two men walked behind the ranger commander, waiting to speak to the officer. The first man was wearing combat armor and he had a strange looking weapon slung across his chest, it had a small scope attached to it, and it was painted in a woodland camouflage scheme. He also had a Scoped Hunting Rifle slung behind his back. The man with him was wearing a simple combination of a dirty white t-shirt and trousers. He was also wearing sunglasses, and had a Scoped Hunting Rifle slung behind his back. Both men were wearing a red coloured beret, similar to other soldiers in a tent nearby. Since all of them had some sort of scoped weapon on their person, it was easy to assume that they were some sort of sniper platoon; however, the man waiting to speak to the officer didn't look like he was in the military. He almost reminded Jim of himself. He noticed the man taking a look at him and Sarah, the concerned look in his eyes almost looked as if he recognized them, or had seen Brotherhood soldiers recently.

"I dunno, sir. When we ambushed the Legion group, those Paladins were cornered by the Legion." the commander replied. Dhatri sighed, it wasn't his problem "You should talk to Colonel Hsu or Lieutenant Boyd. They are their problem now."

"Yes sir" the ranger replied. The ranger walked towards the main building, giving a respectful nod to the man waiting to talk to the officer. Jim and Sarah were forced to follow along with the other two rangers into the old terminal building. They walked through the building and stopped outside an office. The two rangers were ordered to wait outside while their commander talked to Colonel Hsu.

"Yes? What is it?" Hsu asked the ranger

"Sir, while we were operating against the Legion in the northern mountains, we came across something." the commander said

"What did you find?" Hsu asked

"It would be easier to show you sir." The rangers outside took their cue, and led Jim and Sarah into the office. Hsu's face became one of utter shock; he almost couldn't believe his eyes.

"Good work." Hsu said to the commander "However, their capture would have been a lot more important a day ago."

"What do you mean sir? What can be more important than two Brotherhood paladins?" the ranger asked.

"We captured a Legion Centurion yesterday." Hsu told the ranger.

"You did?" the ranger asked in disbelief. The first thing that Legionaries were taught is to die before being captured by the enemy, Centurions were Caesar's best battlefield commanders, they would never let themselves get captured alive.

"Yes, he apparently turned himself in while his men were slitting their throats. Boyd's up with him now. Take these two up to the cell." Hsu ordered. The ranger saluted, which was returned by Hsu. Jim and Sarah were then led up the stairwell and across the terminal building. At the far end of a building were three small rooms. Jim and Sarah were led in through the first door on the left, inside were jail cells. Jim and Sarah were led into the first cell, which was the biggest, and it had two beds. Their restraints were also removed. Their weapons, ammo, other equipment and personal effects, which were in the crates that they were carrying, were dumped by the wall opposite them. The rangers then walked out and closed the door. Both Jim and Sarah sat down on a bed and took off their helmets. Sarah then looked back up at Jim, who was staring at the ground.

"It could be worse." Jim said.

"How so?" Sarah asked

"I could've had my hands and feet nailed to a cross and you could've become that asshole's sex slave."

"Point taken." Sarah replied.

"Your father's gonna love this" Jim said. "We must've wandered into their territory, those first guys I mean. We saw the villages. That squad must've tracked us here."

"Didn't you hear that guy, Vulpes In-whatever his name was. He mentioned that there was a Brotherhood of Steel chapter in the Mojave Desert. They could help us get into contact with Lost Hills. Obviously, we need to get out of here first." Sarah said.

"Did you see the guy waiting for to speak to that Major, combat armor, red beret?" Jim asked

"Yeah, what about him?" Sarah asked

"The way he looked at us, It's was almost as if he had seen the Brotherhood recently. There was a look of concern, rather than one of surprise. Considering that the NCR soldiers we've seen have been surprised to see us, they must've gone underground after a war with the NCR. That guy may know something about the Brotherhood in this area." Jim said

"What makes you think that you could trust that guy, Jim?" Sarah asked

"The guy isn't with the NCR military, at least in any official capacity, yet he still does jobs for them. It reminds me of how I worked with the Brotherhood three years ago."

"And you can get all of that just from a look he gave us?" Sarah asked

"Sarah, it's called observing and connecting the dots." Jim replied. Sarah was about to give a sarcastic reply when they heard a door close outside, and a woman talking to the rangers outside.

"What is it?" Lieutenant Boyd asked.

"Maam, we have two more prisoners for you." the ranger said

"If they are Legionaries, you'll have better luck doing the interrogation yourself." Boyd said, taking a long puff of her cigarette.

"Sorry Lieutenant, we captured two Brotherhood of Steel Paladins." the ranger said

"I hope you're kidding." Boyd replied, he mouth was gaping open slightly. "Shit, I've got enough on my plate with this centurion, he isn't budging at all. I don't have time to interrogate- hold on a second." the woman said.

"Is there something wrong, Lieutenant Boyd?" Ivan asked

"No Ivan, you're just the man I needed to see." Boyd replied.

"Yeah, Colonel Hsu said that you needed some help." Ivan said.

"I'm in the middle of interrogating that centurion. You can have a go if I don't get anything from him. However, I want you to go and talk to our newest prisoners, two Brotherhood Paladins."

"Sure, I saw them outside. I'll do what I can." Ivan replied. "I'll like to talk to them alone, that includes you Craig." he said.

"Fine by me." Boone said "I'll sit tight." Ivan turned to the Rangers

"Why don't you guys go through their personal effects?" he suggested. The rangers looked at one another and shrugged, they had nothing better to do. Boyd walked back into the interrogation room and Ivan walked into the jail. The rangers walked in behind him, picked up the two metal crates and walked out into the next room. Ivan picked up a chair, turned it around and sat on it backwards, resting his arms on the back of the chair. He noticed with great interest that the male Paladin had a Pip-Boy on his left wrist.

"Okay, let's start with the basics. Give me your names." Ivan said. He noticed that they looked to one another for approval. The woman then spoke up

"I am Sentinel Sarah Lyons, this is Sentinel James Anderson."

"Sentinel? I've never heard of that rank. I thought you were Paladins." Ivan stated

"It's the second highest rank in our chapter." Sarah said

"And where is your chapter?" Ivan asked. He could already see where this was going.

"We are not from the Mojave, our detachment is based in the ruins of Washington DC, the Capital Wasteland." Sarah said.

"Any proof to back that up?" Ivan asked

"Check our personal effects." Jim said.

"Okay, what was your assignment?" Ivan asked. Again, the two of them looked to one another for approval, Sarah spoke up again

"We were sent to California to reestablish contact with the Brotherhood leadership."

"Hold on, I'll be right back." Ivan said, he stood up and left the room.

"I hope we aren't making a mistake telling them all of this." Jim said

"I don't think so. The New California Republic is actually a lot more like us than the rest of the Brotherhood. All they cared about was the recovery and restoration of pre-war technology, disregarding everyone else who was not part of the order. However, our detachment shows compassion, and while our objective is once again to recover pre-war tech, we still show honor and caring towards the less fortunate of the Wasteland. The NCR is an organization that promotes the pre-war values of democracy and centralized government. I can understand why they didn't like the west coast Brotherhood."

"I sure hope you're right Sarah." Jim told her.

"Well I'll be damned" one of the rangers said while looking at two small pieces of paper that were in Jim's crate.

"What is it?" the commander asked. The ranger showed him a piece of paper, it was a picture of Jim and Sarah together in the Citadel, they were still in their Power Armor, smiling for the camera.

"Those Paladins we captured are love birds" the ranger stated, doing a wolf whistle.

"They are Sentinels actually." Ivan said from the doorway

"Sorry sir?" one of the Rangers asked

"They claim to be Sentinels, not Paladins. Find anything useful?" Ivan asked

"Yeah, one thing sir" the commander said, handing him two thick folders of documents."They seem to be reports that start in 2277"

"Thanks." Ivan said. He sat down and opened the first folder and skimmed through the first report. They were reports that were written by the Sarah Lyons. The first report talked about a skirmish that her unit had in the DC ruins, it also mentioned the Capitol Building. Unless they went to great lengths to fabricate two folder's worth of reports, they were telling the truth. The end of her report also mentioned a vault dweller that her unit came across who tagged along with them, how he was an exceptional shot, better than most of their recruits, and how he single-handedly saved her and her unit's lives. It was safe for Ivan to assume that the person she was talking about was the man she was sharing a jail cell within the next room.

"Thanks." Ivan told the ranger.

"No problem sir." the ranger replied.

"Hey, let me see those pictures." Ivan said, the ranger handed them over. The first picture was the two Sentinels together, the second was a group photo and the two Sentinels were in the centre. All of them were wearing Power Armor.

_This must be their unit._ Ivan thought _Sarah Lyons must be its commander, while James Anderson must've been recruited into the Brotherhood and rose through the ranks to become second-in-command of this unit, alongside Lyons._ Ivan then walked out of the room and back into the jail.

"What the hell is this?" one the rangers asked. He picked the thing out of Jim's crate and examined it. It looked like a modified paint gun; it had a toy car strapped on to the front and what looked like surgical tubing hanging from the wheels. It looked like a small catapult. He noticed markings on the yellow container on the paint gun, which was a skull and crossbones. He slowly took the container off and looked inside. The container contained a green-yellow liquid, poison.

"Whoa, there's poison in here." the ranger stated.

"Put it back together and leave it. I don't want one of my rangers dying by accidental poisoning." the commander ordered

Ivan sat back down on the chair in front of Jim and Sarah.

"Your story checks out, at least, to me it does." Ivan said "I really don't have anything more to ask you"

"Okay then" Jim said "Why don't you tell us about yourself. What's your name?" Ivan hesitated for a few seconds, he should be asking questions, but he shrugged his shoulders.

"My name is Ivan Zhukov." Ivan replied

"No military rank?" Jim asked

"I'm not a part of the NCR's military. I do work for them. I suppose that means I'm a mercenary. Though, I do have a pretty good reputation around here. I was a courier once, but that is a long story."

"What do you know of the Brotherhood?" Jim asked

"I...uhh" Ivan started. He looked around the room instinctively. "I've done a couple of jobs for them."

"You have?" Sarah asked, Jim was right.

"Yeah, they are a bunch of technology obsessed soldiers, though in reality, they actually are not all that bad. They just don't give a damn about what happens outside in the Wasteland or the locals. I was lucky that I didn't my head blown off when I stumbled across their bunker." he laughed

"Believe it or not, we are not like the Brotherhood on the west coast. We're not just a bunch of 'technology obsessed soldiers'. Over there, our main objective was to protect the locals of the wasteland. That's actually a long story, a very long one. It's all in those reports." Jim said. Ivan found that hard to believe in a way since they are with the Brotherhood after all, but coming from them, he believed them somehow.

"Where's their base?" Sarah asked

"It's in a place called Hidden Valley, about 20 miles southwest of here. If you are ever released, I'll take you there. You'd just better hope that Colonel Moore doesn't find out about your capture. She served four tours against the Brotherhood during the war. She'll jump upon this when she hears about it." Suddenly the door opened behind him and Lieutenant Boyd walked into the room, and made a gesture for Ivan to step outside.

"I hope you're having better luck with them than I'm having with this guy." Boyd said

"Actually, they've been quite cooperative. We found these reports in their personal effects. But they are useless." Ivan said

"Are you kidding? Those reports are an intelligence gold mine." Boyd retorted

"No, I'm not. They are useless because they are not part of the Mojave chapter. Far from it in fact, they are from the east coast, Washington DC."

"Bullshit."

"Read them for yourself." Ivan said, holding out the first folder. Boyd took it and skimmed through the first few reports.

"Okay, but you do realize that they could've made these up."

"Judging by the amount of reports, and sheer amount of detail that they contain, I think it's highly unlikely that they made them up. The reports go up to about four months ago. I think they are telling the truth." Ivan persisted. Boyd sighed.

"If this was coming from anyone else, they would've been halfway to the front line by now. Coming from you, this information seems solid. They can go once we get someone in to detail their documents, assignment and other issues." Boyd said. Ivan turned around towards the door to the cells, but Boyd spoke to him again.

"Hey, do you want a crack at this centurion?" she asked

"Yeah, sure. Just give me a few minutes." Ivan said, he then walked back into the jail.

"You are essentially free to go." he said to Jim and Sarah

"Really?" Jim asked

"Well, the NCR want to go through your reports, assignment and other stuff. They are sending someone in to do it, so I think you'll be finished by nightfall. I can escort you to the Brotherhood's bunker."

"Thank you" Sarah said.

"No problem." Ivan said, "Oh, James, I think it would be more appropriate to keep these on you." Ivan said, handing him the two pictures. When Jim looked at the top one, he smiled and stole a look at Sarah.

"It's Jim." he said, holding his hand out through the cell. Ivan took it and shook it. He then walked out and into the interrogation room.

"What now?" Sarah asked

"I guess we have to wait." Jim said, lying down on the bed.

Ivan walked into the interrogation room to find Boyd waiting for him. Behind her was a clear glass pane, which allowed the observation of an interrogation. Inside the room was a large man dressed in heavy Centurion armor, his hands were restrained on the chair.

"I'm not having any luck with this guy." Boyd said "The only time he speaks is to give insults. What weird is that this guy gave himself up; it had cooperation written all over it. I'm wondering why this guy even bothered to surrender, while him men were slitting their throats around him."

"What do you need me to do?" Ivan asked

"The NCR does not condone torture; it's something that was left over from the Tandi administration. However, what I like the most about you is that you are not from the NCR, so therefore, you don't have to wade through the red tape that I'm trying to get through. Rough him up a little, but don't kill him." Ivan nodded. "Okay, I'll give you an introduction. Oh, and I've got to search you for weapons, I don't want you shooting him in the head or something." Ivan nodded, he handed his backpack, M4, Hunting Rifle and his sidearm over to the corporal who was standing at the side of the room.

"Great. Let's get this over with, shall we?" Boyd said. She walked into the interrogation room, Ivan moved to the observation window.

"Hey Silus" Boyd said.

"Ah, Lieutenant, I was just think about you" the centurion said

"Really" Boyd said in a mockingly cute way

"I was thinking about your long, soft neck"

"That so sweet" Boyd replied sarcastically

"I was thinking about what it would look like with a Legion slave collar on it. Do you know what makes our collars so special?" the centurion asked

"They are in fashion?" Boyd said sarcastically

"I teach my legionaries to apply them so that they are so tight that it would hurt when they eat, or drink or move their neck, but just loose enough so that they can breathe. This makes them remember who they belong to."

"I have a friend who would like to speak to you Silus." Boyd stated "Do you know about the provisions put in place to protect NCR prisoners of war?"

"Of course" the centurion replied

"My friend doesn't, and by the time he's finished with you, you'll be telling us what you know." Boyd told him. "You can come in now." Ivan walked into the interrogation room.

"He's all yours. Have fun." Boyd said, walking out of the room. The centurion laughed

"Well, if it isn't Ivan the Courier. The Lieutenant must be desperate if she enlisted the help of the NCR's white knight." Silus said

"Why don't we make this easy Silus. Tell me what you know." Ivan said. The centurion laughed

"Let's see. I know that you are just another worthless soldier. I know that the Lieutenant will be disappointed in you, and the Strip will be under the Legion flag by the end of the month."

"Okay, let's do this the hard way." Ivan said. He walked up to the centurion and landed a blow to his torso. His punches were more powerful than the average soldiers, and he felt a rib crack. Silus winced a bit, but laughed again.

"Is that it?" he asked. Ivan continued. After five minutes, cuts and cruises were showing on Silus' head.

"You know what this has in common with your slave collars?" Ivan asked Silus, standing behind him, talking into his ear.

"What?" the centurion asked

"By the time I'm done, you ribs will never head properly, your nose will be permanently disfigured and it will hurt to even breathe. That means you will always remember this interrogation." Silus remained silent, Ivan walked around to face him.

"What's wrong Silus? Where's the amusing comeback this time?" Ivan laughed. Silus just spat at his feet. "Okay, have it your way."

The blows lasted for a further ten minutes, and after several more broken ribs and a broken nose, Silus caved in.

"Enough! This is pointless, I'm dead anyway." Silus said. Ivan stepped back, and allowed him to speak.

"The Legion has a spy in this base, I'm sure you have noticed that every hostile group in this area knows your daily troop movements and positions. I don't know the identity of the spy, but I do know that he is an officer."

"Is that all?" Ivan asked

"No. The Kaisar is ill. He spends days holed up in his tent, refusing to give orders, complaining of headaches. We spent three days waiting for our orders. However, any questions of his health will enrage him."

"Thank you Silus, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Silus just spat blood at his feet again. Ivan walked out of the interrogation room to the waiting Lieutenant Boyd. She started slowly clapping.

"Great work." She simply said. "I'll go and inform Colonel Hsu about these recent developments and your recommendations on the Brotherhood prisoners. I don't think he will oppose their release since you have gathered enough evidence that they are not our enemies. We sent a intelligence specialist over from Hoover Dam to work with them, so they'll be ready to go by night fall." Boyd said.

"I'll like them released into my custody; I'll escort them through the Mojave." Ivan said.

"I'm sure we can arrange that. Meanwhile, I'll like you to start digging around for our mole. You should start with Captain Curtis; he's been heading up the investigation into the leaking of our troop movements. He'll point you in the right direction. You should also start asking around the base, but remember that no one is above suspicion." she told him. Boyd then walked out of the interrogation room to find the Colonel. Ivan gathered his weapons and equipment. He'd go and talk to Curtis and then talk to the First Recon snipers in the base, they occupy some the watch towers during the night watch shift, and if anyone noticed anything suspicious, it would be them.

**This chapter turned out to be slightly different than what I anticipated. I had originally planned to have Jim do the interrogation, making Silus talk with the poisoned darts and dangling some anti-venom in front of his face, but I decided to scrap it once I got there and just had it play out like it did in-game. I also felt that I made the NCR go easy on them, but it was the only way to get them released, which I had wanted to do. While breaking out was an option, it would be pointless as I aim to have Jim and Sarah, along with Ivan, convince the BoS to have a truce with the NCR and help out the the Hoover Dam. I also have a basic plan for the story, the challenge now is to integrate Jim and Sarah into the storyline without fucking it up too much. I also don't plan for the story to end at the Hoover Dam, there may be a surprise or two. I also just made up the PC's second names as a spur of the moment thing. I also may as well explain the deal with my spelling of Caesar (Kaisar). I did this purely to highlight the difference in pronunciation between the Legionaries and everyone else, who (will) say "Caesar". **


	6. The Mojave Wasteland

**No reviews for the last chapter? Did I do something wrong?**

**The Mojave Wasteland**

For Ivan and Boone, the day was a long and surprising one. Their investigation into the mole at Camp McCarran and the subsequent leaking of troop movements led to a lead that centered on the old aircraft control tower. After asking around the First Recon tent for suspicious activity, Corporal Sterling told them about activity in the old aircraft control tower. He didn't get a look at who was entering the tower, but he did note that there was a light on inside the tower consistently at around 1AM. They then talked to Lieutenant Boyd further proved that someone had been accessing the control tower. At first she suspected that it was just two young lovers looking to get some place private. However only officers could access the tower. She gave Ivan the password to the terminal to the tower. She also gave permission for Boone to occupy one of the nearby guard towers so that he could observe the entrance to the tower. They waited until 1AM, and both men observed Captain Curtis, the head of the investigation, entering the tower. When Ivan checked it out, he found Curtis contacting the Legion, using Latin call-signs. Rather than confront him immediately, Ivan listened to the report. Rather than relay troop movements, he talked about a bomb on the monorail. When Ivan confronted Curtis, he was forced to shoot him. While searching his body he found a deactivation code for the bomb, which was hidden inside a ventilation shaft on the monorail car. By the time they were finished, it was nearly two in the morning.

By contrast, Sentinels Anderson and Lyons spent almost all of their day in their cell. Eventually, an intelligence officer arrived and interviewed them in the interrogation room. The officer asked them about their mission in California, how they travelled west, and how they came into contact with the Legion. Unfortunately for them, the officer didn't explain the situation to them, so they answered his questions while they had no idea what they were talking about. He also combed through their reports that were in Sarah's backpack, asking them questions on specific events. He also expressed a great deal of surprise and interest when they got to the part when Enclave Vertibird shock troops occupied Project Purity's purifier, the offensive to regain the control of the purifier and the assault on Adams Air Force Base. They sat in the interrogation room for hours on end, and they were almost asleep by the time they had finished. They returned to their cell to get some sleep.

Several hours later, they were awoken by Ivan, who looked like he was ready to fight a war with all of the weapons and equipment he had on him.

"Come on, it's time for us to go." Ivan said, knocking the barriers Sarah groaned, Jim looked at his pip boy

"Is there a reason why we are leaving at one in the morning?" Jim asked, getting off of his bed and rubbing his eyes. Sarah yawned and did the same.

"Yeah" Ivan said "The Brotherhood is a local wasteland legend, especially in the western part. There were old stories of "tin men" traversing the wastes, but thankfully, nobody ever looked hard enough for them. Just by wearing power armor, you will attract a lot of attention around here, especially during the day. At night, most people are asleep, so if we avoid any major populated areas or hot zones, we should be fine. I don't particularly want to be executed if some wastelander who followed us turns up at the bunker, y'know?" Ivan fumbled with the jail keys and opened the cell. Their weapons and equipment were waiting for them in the next room.

"Okay" Ivan started once they had loaded up "While walking through the base, keep your weapons holstered. However, when we leave the shutter, keep your eyes peeled and make sure your weapons are locked and loaded. This area is almost surrounded by Fiends. If you see someone with a skull helmet, shoot them."

"Fiends?" Jim asked

"Chem addicted raiders. They operate out of Vault 3 in West Vegas. They massacred the inhabitants when they opened their vault to trade."

"A bunch of raiders shouldn't be a problem for us, right? By the way, I need to get a vault to download data on this region. This damn thing is almost useless without it." Jim said, pointing to his pip boy. Ivan took a disk out of his pip boy and handed it to Jim.

"Here, it has a map that's marked with landmarks that I've come across."

"Thanks a lot." Jim said, downloading the data off of the disk.

"What about the raiders?" Sarah asked

"They are not your regular band of raiders. The chems they've been taking have made them completely psychotic and irrational. You couldn't describe them as human anymore. The fact that they have a considerable amount of energy based weapons doesn't help."

"What kind of energy weapons?" Sarah asked, surprised that lowly raiders could get access to that type of hardware.

"Plasma and Laser Rifles mostly. They ambushed caravans of an energy weapons family dealership, the Van Graffs."

"Well, I guess we should get moving then." Jim stated, slamming a magazine into his Chinese assault rifle. They walked out of the the room, where a man was waiting by the door. He was the man that Jim and Sarah saw waiting with Ivan earlier in the morning.

"Craig, meet Sentinels James Anderson and Sarah Lyons." Boone shook their hands "This is Craig Boone, ex-NCR sniper. He's been wandering with me for a good while now. Ready to go, Craig?"

"Yeah, let's go." Boone said.

The four of them walked through the base and left via the shutter at the front. When they had left, Ivan readied his M4, the rest of them followed his example. They moved around the base through the ruins of the outskirts of Las Vegas. The first 15 minutes were peaceful, until down the road they saw muzzle flashes and energy discharges. The group proceeded slowly down the road, evenly spread out. Eventually, the muzzle flashes stopped. The group stopped and Ivan lined up his crosshairs on a Fiend that was 150 metres away. He took a single shot and the raider was killed instantly with a gunshot wound to the chest. The remaining fiends, who were surprised by the attack, ran for cover while blindly firing down the road in panic. The group then moved forward, laying down sporadic suppressing fire on the fiends.

Once they were getting closer, a fiend poked her head up from her cover to look at the group coming towards them. She already knew who the man in the centre was; he was Ivan Zhukov, the man who killed Motor Runner, Violet, Nelphi and Cook-Cook. However, she squinted at the two people beside him. She eventually saw the power armor that they were wearing and she felt a strange feeling of fear grip her, a fear that the cocktail of chems flowing through her veins couldn't suppress.

"Oh shit, it's the fucking Brotherhood tin men. Fucking run!" she shouted. She dropped her weapon and ran back to where she came; the remaining fiends looked up, saw the power armor and did the same. Jim aimed down the iron sights of his assault rifle, however, when he squeezed the trigger, he got a click.

"Damn it." he whispered in frustration. He took the magazine out and quickly inspected it. There were bullets present, and judging by the weight, it was half empty. He put it back in and when he was about to pull the charging handle, he found the problem. A casing had become lodged in the ejection port; the end of the casing was stuck. The dusty conditions had screwed up the feeding system for his assault rifle. He wrestled with the charging handle, but to no avail.

"Let them go. They are not worth the ammo." Ivan stated. Jim hesitated, but he then lowered his weapon. It took a minute of tugging, but he finally pulled the charging handle on his rifle, un-jamming it for the time being. Thankfully, he brought a cleaning kit for both his assault rifle and Sarah's Laser Rifle in his pack. He'd clean it when they got to this bunker that they were going to. The first leg of the journey, which was through the ruins of the old Vegas, everyone was silent, due to the constant threat of an ambush. However, once they had cleared the ruins, they were in the cold expanse of the Mojave Desert. The group started to chat to one another, well, most people at least.

"What the hell is going here?" Jim asked bluntly "Here in the Mojave I mean. Who were the people that cornered us?"

"The group that cornered you is called the Legion. They are led by a man called Caesar; he bases his vision of post-war society as once that should follow the example of the ancient Roman Empire. Ivan stated. "They…well, let's just say that they are not a nice bunch. Slavery, Rape, Executions, Crucifixions, Torture…the list goes on." Ivan explained

"The fate of New Vegas is in the hands of three factions: The NCR; Legion and Mr House. House is the de-facto leader of New Vegas, he was alive during the Great War, and he defended the Mojave from most of the nuclear ordnance that was fired at the city. Each side's main objective is the Hoover Dam; it's a strategic location for the Legion and the NCR. Whoever controls the Dam essentially controls New Vegas. There are other minor sides to the conflict. One of which is the Brotherhood, who were driven underground in the aftermath of a bloody war with the NCR. They have been in a state of lockdown for years. No combat patrols are allowed out of their base. Only the occasional scout and supply runners can leave. I could see the Paladins in there going crazy. The last time I was there, I was leaving back parts to fix their air-filtration system. Hopefully they fixed it." he remarked to himself

"What about you? How'd you get dragged into this conflict?" Jim asked

"I was part-time courier. I was tasked with delivering a platinum poker chip to the Strip. On the way, I was ambushed by an asshole in a checkered suit. He shot me in the head and stole the chip. That's where this scar came from." he said, pointing at a scar above his left eye.

"I was picked up, stabilized and I woke up a few days later. My original objective was to find that asshole and get the chip back. Well, I guess I have other priorities now. What about you? How does a DC vault dweller get so far west?"

"I was known as the Lone Wanderer to the people of the wasteland. To cut a long story short, I was looking for my dad, who escaped the vault. On the way, I found out that before my dad was in fact the scientist in a charge of a project that aimed to purify all of the irradiated water in the Potomac River."

"That's incredible!" Ivan exclaimed "How did it go?"

"My birth sent the project over the edge, since my mother died during child birth. My dad left with me and we settled down in a Vault. Of course, I was too young to remember any of that, so I was fed the lie that I was born there. _'You are born in the vault; you will die in the vault.'_" Jim recited.

"During my wasteland adventures, I met Sarah and Lyons' Pride. I'm guessing you saw Sarah's first report?" Ivan nodded

"Well, after that engagement, I was sent on a wild goose chase around the wasteland. I eventually found my father and went back to the Project Purity's test site. We were then ambushed by the Enclave, the remnants of the US government. My dad was killed, I and the rest of the science team escaped to the Brotherhood's headquarters. Several weeks later, I was given the honorary position of Knight on Lyons' Pride, and we led the assault to take back the purifier. After we secured the purifier, I volunteered to turn the thing on. In doing so, I exposed myself to normally lethal doses of radiation. Both I and Sarah were in a coma for two weeks. I woke up first, and I led the strike force against the Enclave, who were holed up in an old air force base. We destroyed their headquarters with their own orbital strike. After that, life went on. I stayed on in the Brotherhood and rose through the ranks to become second in command of the Pride, alongside Sarah. I also became third in line to the Eldership, which strikes me as odd considering what Sarah told me about the rest of the Brotherhood."

"Where's the pride now?" Ivan asked. Sarah answered.

"My father, Elder Lyons, felt that it would be wise to send the 'best' of our detachment back west. Besides, it's easier to travel long distances in small groups rather than a large one; it will only slow you down." Sarah stated. Ivan nodded, she was right. The amount of supplies one would have to tow would increase dramatically with every team member. Smaller groups also allowed more efficient teamwork, and judging by the fact that these two travelled thousands of miles west in four months virtually unscathed, Ivan could see that they made a good pair. As they walked on, they stuck to Highway 95, which went south east from the city. They passed an old freeway intersection, which Ivan explained to be a large trading outpost. As the moved south, they passed Novac. Dinky the Dinosaur, the town mascot, attracted the attention of the two Sentinels, Jim burst into quiet laughter when he saw it. Eventually, they came to a small canyon.

"Hold up." Ivan said quietly

"What is it?" Jim asked, Ivan seemingly ignored him.

"Craig, move forward and take a look" Ivan whispered. Boone nodded and slowly moved towards a high rock. The rest of the group moved away from the centre of the trail and against the canyon rock. Once Boone got to relatively high ground, he hoisted his Hunting Rifle slowly to survey the area for threats. There were four Viper Gunslingers waiting to ambush someone or something. There were two directly in front of the group; about 100 metres away and their backs were turned. The other two were higher up, waiting by the ridge line. Ironically, despite their name, the Viper Gunslingers were lightly armed. About half of the group wielded melee weapons. The other half had a basic pistol. Boone slowly moved back down the rock and back towards the group.

"What have you got?" Ivan asked

"Four Viper Gunslingers. Two directly ahead of us, the other two are on the high ridge line. They haven't got any ranged weapons, so I think we can easily kill them off without much danger to ourselves." Boone said

"Do it." Ivan said

"Can I help?" Jim asked, replacing his Chinese Assault Rifle with his own Hunting Rifle.

"Yeah, I suppose. Come on." Boone whispered, motioning his hand towards him. Jim followed him back to the high ground.

"Okay, what ones will you take?" Jim asked, taking off his helmet. He didn't have to take it off to aim down his rifle's optics, but it helped if he didn't wear the helmet.

"I'll take the two on the far ridge line. You take the two ahead of us." Boone replied, Jim nodded. Both men aimed down their scopes. Jim fired first, landing a bullet directly into the back of one of the raider's heads. Boone followed, his approximations for the bullet drop compensation were correct, as his round landed in a raider's chest. He quickly operated the bolt and fired on the second raider, who started running to his left. He didn't last long. Jim also quickly finished his last raider off with a second shot. Jim turned his head back to Ivan and Sarah behind them.

"Clear" he whispered, giving a thumb up. They then regrouped and moved through the canyon. They stopped to see if the raiders had anything that remotely valuable or useful on their corpses. Not surprisingly, they had nothing. Sarah chuckled slightly

"What?" Jim asked

"It's ironic" Sarah stated "The Vipers killed Maxon II nearly 150 years ago. Now look at them. Sarah said, nudging one of the bodies with her foot. The two Sentinels noticed that Ivan and Boone were securing some sort of cloth over their lower face, covering their nose and mouth.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked

"There's a town up ahead that was attacked by the Legion. It was my first encounter with them. They didn't clean up after themselves." Ivan said. Jim and Sarah took the hint, but nothing could have prepared them for what they were about to walk into.

They continued down the canyon and they saw faint black smoke rising not far from them. At the end of the canyon, there was an old railway crossing, just beyond which was the town of Nipton, according to the sign. Or what was left of it. The town was completely devoid of life, several buildings were reduced to ashes. As they moved towards the town, Jim and Sarah started to understand why Ivan and Boone were wearing cloths over their nose as a pungent stench filled their nostrils. This wasn't any normal stench; it was the stench of decomposing bodies, mixed with smouldering rubber. As the moved through the town, they saw that the bodies were everywhere. Some bodies were beheaded. Their decomposition almost made them look like ghouls. Near the largest building in the town, there were two large piles of tires, with charred skeletons lying on them or nearby. Large spears were erected on either side of the hall; each one had the dismembered head of a victim stuck on top of it. Along the main street leading to the town hall, the sidewalks were lined with crucifixes; their unfortunate occupants had long succumbed to the pain and the elements. Ivan and Boone had already bypassed the town, several times in fact, so they knew what to expect. James and Sarah however, had not. With all of their combined combat experience, none of them had seen such brutality on such a large scale. The raiders back in DC just captured the occasional wanderer or a stray, and tortured and dismembered them simply for their own pleasure. However, they neither had the organization nor the man power to raid and lay waste to an entire town, which is what they saw before them. This Legion was a large, organized and brutal military force. If they were able to break their stalemate and move west, both of them now knew what that mean for the thousands of people living both here and in California. The thought also dawned on them that they may also set their sights east someday.

"Why..." Sarah stammered "Why did they do this?" she asked.

"To send a message" Ivan replied. "Remember that guy, Vulpes Inculta? He led a small expeditionary force and did this. I met him there, by the steps of the town hall, and he explained how the inhabitants were savages and how they deserved it. But I knew the real reason. There's a small NCR outpost about a mile away, on top of a hill. The Legion wanted the NCR to know how strong they are becoming, and that they can move small groups west across the river with relative ease. I followed them out of the town and picked them off in the canyon. Sadly, Inculta escaped. Come on, we are not far from the bunker now." They moved down the main street and turned right, out of the town. James and Sarah let Ivan and Boone go forward. They lagged behind deliberately so that they could discuss things.

"So, what are we going to do?" Jim asked

"I think we should lend a hand." she replied

"I agree, but how?" Jim asked

"Perhaps we can convince the Brotherhood here to get their heads out of their ass and do something. The Brotherhood here may be a bunch of cold, ego-centric warriors, but they are still human. If they are led into a corner, they will lash out and fight to the death. If I were the Elder, I'd see the Legion as a significant threat. Even though they were on bad terms with the NCR, we should get them to help."

"I have an idea. Come on" Jim said. Sarah followed behind him.

"Hey, Ivan" Jim called out, Ivan turned around.

"What?"

"What does the Legion think of the Brotherhood?" Jim asked. He was hoping for a particular answer, judging by the stuff he had learned.

"They see them as the embodiment of the pre-war military and even society itself - totally dependent on technology. It is the complete opposite of the Legion's aims, who destroy or discard any technology they come across. They think that it was that technology dependence that brought the world into oblivion, and thus they dislike any form of advanced pre-war technology. Caesar sees the Roman Empire as the perfect society. It had no technology that was capable of destroying itself and the world. Life was much more simple back then. So therefore, the Legion doesn't like the Brotherhood all that much."

"Thanks." Jim replied. He knew that he didn't need to explain the possible ramifications to Sarah, they could use that trump card later, as there seemed to be no use in talking to them about it during their first meeting.

After an hour's walking, they saw a fire ahead, Ivan motioned for them to stop, and they crouched down.

"Powder Ganger camp ahead." Ivan whispered "It would be easier to move around it." The group moved around the camp as quietly as possible as to avoid altering the weary guards, who were standing over the fire. Beyond the camp was a large fenced off compound flanked by four large guard towers, one at each corner. The towers sported snipers and powerful search lights, which illuminated the surrounding area.

"That's the NCR Correctional Facility, the Powder Ganger's base of operations. They were criminals sent from California so that they could work on the railway tracks. However, some genius though that it would've been a good idea to give them crates of explosives so that they could remove boulders. They overran the guards and set up the Powder Gangers. Some fled east and terrorized Primm, a town east of there. The bunker is just beyond this facility, come on." Ivan said. They moved over several hills and they eventually arrived at another fenced off compound, this one was abandoned. The sun was beginning to rise, filling the area with an eerie orange glow. They eventually came to a bunker door, built into a rock. The doorway was defaced with, presumably, 200 year old anti war graffiti with a distinct emphasis on anti-war subjects and love.

"This is it?" Sarah asked

"This is the place." Ivan replied, he turned to Boone

"Craig, cover out backs out here, we don't want anyone else to stumble across this facility, do we?" Boone nodded. Ivan turned towards the door and operated its wheel in the centre.

Paladin Ramos sighed with boredom. He finished typing his daily report and put his feet up on his desk. Lockdown was one of the most terrible experiences in his life. He couldn't remember the last time that he breathed clean, unfiltered air. Being the Head of Security didn't help either. The only notable occurrences were the occasional suicide and violent mental breakdowns. Although, the atmosphere inside the bunker had become more interesting with the arrival of a mercenary, Ivan Zhukov, who stumbled across the bunker. Somehow, he gained the favour of the Elder, and he became somewhat accepted in the bunker, but he was still the outsider.

_Beeep_

Ramos was alerted by the sound coming from his terminal. The screen was displaying a message.

_ALERT: MOTION SENSORS TRIPPED_

Ramos turned to the small television and turned it on. A distorted and blurry black and white image came on the screen. It was a side view of the entrance to the bunker. Several seconds later, three figures came into view. The lead figure walked up to the intercom and spoke.

"India-Zulu-Two-Niner" the man said. It was Ivan Zhukov, and his subsequent passcode. Before Ramos unlocked the door, he took another look at the camera display. He noticed that Zhukov looked at the camera for several seconds seemingly in frustration. The two people with him looked…different. He sometimes wished that someone before the war invented colour displays and better quality optics for these cameras. He focused on the two figures, and Ramos recognized them, they were wearing Power Armor.

_What the hell is Zhukov doing?_ Ramos thought _doesn't he know what the protocols are? But still, at least they are not normal wastelanders who would spread our location around like wildfire._ Ramos pressed the button on his transmitter.

"Hold your position" he ordered. He made a motion for the two guards outside his office to move upstairs to the entrance. Several seconds later, a paladin came on the radio

"Ready, sir." the paladin said. Ramos navigated his terminal to the relevant option.

_UNLOCK EXTERIOR DOOR? Y/N_

Ramos hit the Y key and moved from his seat to the landing at the bottom of the staircase to await his new arrivals. This was going to be interesting.

**Now that school is back into full swing, chapters will be coming out slower, as you probably noticed. I supposed the only thing that remains to be said is to R&R.**


	7. Welcome to Hidden Valley

**Welcome to Hidden Valley**

"Hold your position" Ramos ordered over the intercom. Ivan tilted his head slightly in confusion.

"Something wrong?" Sarah asked

"Maybe. They usually open the door immediately after I say my passcode." Ivan looked at the camera, and then he remembered.

"Ah shit!" he exclaimed "I forgot to mention this, but not only are combat patrols not allowed out, but patrols that were out when the lockdown was initiated are not allowed back in. When they see the Power Armor..." he pointed at the camera "...they will automatically assume that you are one of those patrols."

"What will happen to us?" Jim asked

"I don't know" Ivan replied sincerely. In front of them, the door began to open. All of them knew that there was no use in readying their weapons. On the other end, they were met by two Brotherhood Paladins dressed in the newer T-51b model of power armor and they were sporting high powered scoped Gauss Rifles, which could penetrate even power armor if used in extreme close ranges.

"Drop your weapons" the paladin ordered, the three of them complied. The paladin waved his rifle towards the door behind him.

"Come on, move it." he ordered. One of the paladins walked forward and opened the door. Its design was exactly the same as those found in Raven Rock, except the blue outline of the door was replaced with orange. The door opened to reveal a staircase going further underground. The paladin led them down the stairs, with the other one was behind the group. At the bottom of the stair case, Paladin Ramos was waiting for them. Painted on the wall behind him was the Brotherhood's insignia, the gears and cogwheels, overshadowed by a winged dagger. He disregarded the two Sentinels and walked towards Ivan.

"What the fuck are you playing at?" Ramos spat, Ivan just looked at him. "Don't you know the fucking protocol? No Brotherhood combat patrols are allowed out of the bunker during the lockdown, and all combat teams who were out at the start of the lockdown are not allow back. Only paladins in power armor are on the combat teams, and they are all here. So, what the fuck are they doing here?" he asked pointing at the two Sentinels. Ivan opened his mouth to answer, but Ramos moved past him to stand in front of the two sentinels, who were standing side by side. He noted that their shoulder plates did not bear the traditional Brotherhood insignia, but rather the whinged dagger overshadowed not the gears and cogwheels, it overshadowed a lion. He also noted that they did not straighten up when he walked up to him, which told him that they had problems respecting authority.

"What are your names?" he asked, he continued when he didn't get a response from the two. Both Jim and Sarah didn't know how to proceed.

"You both are in direct violation of Directive 509 of the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. Any combat teams that were not present in the bunker after the initiation of a lockdown are prohibited from returning until the end of the lockdown. As punishment, your names will be stricken from the codex, you will no longer exist in history, and you will be banished to the wasteland indefinitely. Now, your names and ranks!" he ordered. Jim quietly smirked

"Good luck" he muttered. That caught Ramos' attention

"WHAT?" he shouted "What did you say?"

"I said good luck finding us in the codex. We didn't come from your goddamned chapter. My name is Sentinel James Anderson." Jim replied. Ramos was taken aback. If what this man was saying was true, were these soldiers from the bunker at Lost Hills and they used Zhukov to gain entrance to the chapter?

_No._ Ramos thought He mentioned that his rank was 'Sentinel', which doesn't exist within the Brotherhood.

"I am Sentinel Sarah Lyons; we are from the detachment that was sent to Washington DC." Sarah stated. As far-fetched their story sounded, Ramos started to connect the dots. He was in his late teens when an expeditionary force under Head Paladin Lyons was sent to Washington DC; Lyons did have a young daughter at the time. Their actions in the east had further divided the already polarised attitudes that were emerging in the organization. Some saw Lyons' actions as honorable, that they showed of best of what humanity left in it. However, others dismissed Lyons' tactics as proof that he was going soft, and that he should be removed from his command so that someone else would follow the Brotherhood's original mission to the letter. As a result, Lyons' chapter was declared as only being part of the Brotherhood in name only. They received no more support from California. Communications degraded and eventually all contact was lost. It was assumed that they either evacuated or were eventually killed by the surrounding mutants. This changed things. He'd have to leave this to either Head Paladin Hardin, or Elder McNamara himself.

"Come with me." Ramos ordered. He led the group down another flight of stairs into the first level of the bunker complex. The bunker seemed to have been built not long before the Great War, since in Washington DC at least, only Raven Rock was built to this newer, more advanced design specification. Initiates and Knights in Recon armor were walking about, socialising. There didn't seem to be much more to do other than that. Paladins dressed in power armor were also roaming the bunker, there was even a group dressed in light clothing jogging to keep up their physical fitness. As they did in Camp McCarran, the group was gaining attention. Everyone that passed near them gave them a curious look, but everyone knew better than to ask Ramos what was going on, so they continued with their daily business. Somewhere in the bunker, there were sounds of energy discharges from what was assumed to be their firing range and/or armory. There were also numerous Mark VII turrets scattered throughout the bunker. In the event of an assault which penetrated the Brotherhood's defences, the turrets would easily cut the invading forces down thanks to the confined space. Ramos led them down another long staircase to the next level in the bunker. The second level proved to be even more confined than the previous one. The group followed Ramos through the narrow corridors until they came to a doorway which was guarded by two paladins wearing power armor and clutching Gauss Rifles.

"I'm here to speak to Elder McNamara" Ramos said to the guards

"Sorry sir, the Elder is in a meeting with Head Paladin Hardin. No one may enter until they are finished." one of the guards stated. Ramos sighed slightly.

"Look, I have to speak to the Elder immediately; it regards the security of this entire bunker. As head of security, I am ordering you to allow me to pass." Ramos ordered. The Paladin hesitated for several seconds, but he knew that he couldn't continue to deny Paladin Ramos entrance, because he could be endangering the entire bunker by doing so. He stepped aside.

"Thank you, Paladin." Ramos said. He walked forward and opened the door into the Elder's office, which was a massive circle shaped area. In the centre of the room was a raised platform, on which was the Elder's desk, similar in design to the desks used by Vault overseers. At the far end of the room was a much larger version of the Brotherhood's insignia, which took up most of the wall. To the right was a podium, beside which was an orange map, similar to the Vault-Tec map in the Citadel, complete with illustrations of local landmarks. Sitting at the desk was a man dressed in robes. Standing beside him was another man who was wearing power armor, so it was easy to assume that the robed man was Elder McNamara, and the man dressed in Power Armor was Hardin, who was speaking as if there weren't any visitors.

"The scout's reports clearly prove my assessment. The NCR is weak. Most of their forces are centered either at Hoover Dam facing Caesar's Legion or at McCarran in the hope of annexing the Strip, not to mention the fact that the garrison is attacked daily by chem addicted, energy weapon wielding raiders. They only have a mere skeleton crew stationed at HELIOS One, if we attack now, we can capture and hold it with relative ease."

The elder looked at the report transcripts and started to shake his head.

"No" he stated "I'm sorry Edgar, but it just isn't a strategic option. We had that exact argument from Elijah, and look where it left us!" he exclaimed. McNamara then looked behind Hardin and saw the four new visitors in his office, Paladin Ramos, Ivan Zhukov and the two Power Armor clad Sentinels.

"Ramos?" McNamara asked "What is the meaning of this?" he asked, he eyes darting from him, to Zhukov and then to the two Sentinels.

"Forgive me, Elder McNamara, but I felt the situation was grave enough to report directly to you. Several minutes ago, Ivan Zhukov arrived at the bunker with these two." he said, referring to Jim and Sarah, "At first, I assumed that they part of a group that was outside of the bunker when we initiated the lockdown, and they then used Zhukov to get in. However, they completely deny this, and claim that they are not from this chapter at all, and were in fact from the East Coast, Washington DC."

"What?" McNamara asked in disbelief.

"We are not lying, sir" Sarah stated, stepping forward. Jim, initially surprised by her move, followed behind.

"My name is Sentinel Sarah Lyons, this is Sentinel James Anderson. We were sent west to re-establish contact with Lost Hills."

Elder McNamara nodded, and let his eyes wander down to the desk as he thought back to times long before their assignment to the Mojave, he looked at Sarah again and it hit him.

"Sir, you're really not buying this?" Hardin asked

"They are telling the truth." McNamara stated. He was once friends with Paladin Owyn Lyons when he they were stationed at Lost Hills, he also knew his daughter, Sarah, when she was young child. She still looked like her mother, but she had her father's eyes. He remembered the heated debates that erupted throughout the bunker when Lyons reported back from the Pentagon with his decision to protect the locals. Personally, he thought it was honourable and an extremely noble deed from Lyons, although he wouldn't admit it to anyone. It was easy to say that the entire organisation went downhill from there. He started wonder what would happen if they did make it back, would it be for better or for worse? McNamara really did not want to find out, as the situation over there was as volatile as a war zone.

"I do not believe that you would remember me Sarah, my name is Elder Nolan McNamara, I was once a good friend of your father. How has he been?" McNamara asked. Behind them, at the bottom of the steps, Ivan's eyes widened as the conversation went on; he didn't imagine that they would get everyone on side so quickly, well, almost everybody. Hardin didn't look happy at all as he stood to the side, almost sulking like a child while watching McNamara converse with these two strangers.

"Tell me" McNamara started "What is this Sentinel rank that you both hold?". Jim, who had been silent throughout the entire conversation, answered

"In our chapter, sir, it is the second highest rank, behind Elder of course." he smiled "When compared to the regular command structure, I believe it is the equivalent of Head Paladin, right?" he looked at Sarah, who nodded and gave him a weak smile. This fact seemed to have surprised Hardin, who had a surprised look on his face, out of sight from the others.

"Interesting." McNamara stated "Tell me this James, I can understand why Sarah can hold such a position at her age, but you are younger, or at least appear to be, how did you achieve your rank?"

"Well sir, I suppose that it would be appropriate to state that I was not born into the Brotherhood. I was raised in a Vault, as you could probably gather." he said, waving his Pip Boy. "I stumbled across Sarah and her unit the DC ruins, and I guess I made an impression on her. I was recruited into the Brotherhood by Sarah and given the rank of Knight. Over the past four years, I guess I made a pretty big impression." Jim replied. McNamara nodded. He had no doubts that this man was a capable soldier, despite his background, and the pair seemed to make an effective team. He did notice the look in their eyes when they looked at one another. It didn't surprise him at all, there were plenty of couples in the bunker right now. While pre-war military doctrine did frown upon procreation within their ranks, it was relaxed, if not encouraged, in the Brotherhood due to the unique circumstances.

"So, what brings you to our bunker?" McNamara asked

"Since we had no way of contacting Lost Hills, we wanted to get word to them that we were coming because, well, I don't want them to shoot us on sight. You chapter is the first we have seen of the Brotherhood in four months. We were hoping that you had the equipment needed to contact Lost Hills." Sarah replied

"Of course we do. However, there are several problems. The NCR's technological skills have increased at an unexpected rate. We know that they are monitoring radio signals. Even encrypted transmissions can be traced back to this complex. We send burst transmissions to Lost Hills each month, but even still, that is very risky, they are sent when we think there is the smallest amount of monitoring. Secondly, I would recommend avoiding Lost Hills for a while. Recently, the atmosphere there has been tense. Divisions are showing on various issues. I am afraid that your arrival there would only send things over the edge." McNamara said. The two Sentinels looked to one another for a consensus and nodded.

"What do we do now?" Jim asked nobody in particular. Ivan stepped forward to the front of the desk beside them.

"You can tag along with me. I don't think you'd want to be confined to this bunker for the rest of your days. Since you are not a part of this chapter, you should be able to come and go freely like me." Ivan turned around to look at Ramos, who nodded in confirmation. Ivan continued.

"First things first, I think that you guys need a change of gear. Your Power Armor will attract too much attention in the wasteland." Hardin then spoke for the first time.

"I'll go and inform Knight Torres that you are coming." he stated. He then walked out of the room through the hallway on the left.

"Thank you Elder McNamara." Sarah said, holding her hand out, which was taken by McNamara. Jim did the same.

"This will not be our last meeting. Good luck to both." McNamara stated, the group then walked out of the room.

"Where did you take our weapons, Ramos?" Ivan asked as they were walking up the stairs.

"My men left them in with the quartermaster. You can pick them up when you get there." he replied.

When they got to the next level, Ramos left the group and walked back to his office. Ivan led Jim and Sarah to the firing range, which they found empty apart from the range master, who was sitting at a desk. Ivan nodded politely at him and turned towards a set of barriers at the end of the room, which were laid out so that it was difficult to break in, while it was easy to communicate with the quartermaster. The Quartermaster, Knight Torres, was standing behind the barrier.

"Hardin sent word that you guys were coming, what do you need?" she asked

"Combat Armor, two sets" Ivan replied

"Helmets?" Torres asked

"No" Jim and Sarah said in unison. Torres smirked and turned around to find some armor.

"Hey Torres, did someone leave in our weapons?" Ivan shouted

"Yeah, hold on and I'll get them." she replied. She returned a minute later with two sets of olive drab combat armor, which were in almost perfect condition.

"Weapons" she muttered remind herself. She opened something under the barrier and started to pile their weapons up. She got to Jim's Chinese Assault Rifle last.

"That's a nice weapon." Torres stated.

"Thanks, it's Chinese. Pretty valuable, I guess." Jim replied.

"Oh, I forgot. You may want to leave that here James. That rifle is completely unique. There are some crazy-ass, fucked up collectors who would kill for that." Ivan stated

"We could shoot them." Jim replied

"Yeah, but that would be a waste of ammo." Ivan said. Jim hesitated, but then handed over the rifle.

"Don't worry; I'll take care of her." Torres said.

"You got any M4s?" Ivan asked

"Maybe." Torres replied. She opened a trap door into and underground storage area. They heard several crates moving and one getting cracked open and Torres returned with a black assault rifle, like Ivan's, it had a scope mounted on top.

"One M4" Torres said, handing the rifle over, and a small crate of empty magazines. "And some empty magazines for the ammo that you have."

"Thanks" Jim replied, taking the rifle and the crate over to a nearby wall, where he sat down to begin the long process of taking each bullet out of the Chinese magazines and transferring them over.

After half an hour, most of which was taken up with the long process of taking off the bulky T-45ds, they were ready to go. Jim and Sarah's skin was noticeably paler due to the four month's worth of sunlight. Other than that, surprisingly, they were normal. They silently thanked the Wesk-Tek engineers who first developed the system well over two hundred years before, who thought of the small features such as interior air conditioning, heating, waste disposal and even a system that attempted to minimise perspiration and keep the wearer clean. They were also issued with backpacks to replace the metal crates that they carried with their power armor, in them they placed their personal effects, essential items such as food and water and other items such as cleaning kits and spare ammo.

"Ready?" Ivan asked, both of them nodded in return. "Let's get going then." They walked through the bunker and left without any resistance from the Paladins on guard at the entrance. Outside the bunker, it was now broad daylight and it was a lot hotter than it was when they went inside. Boone was waiting for them.

"What the hell took you so long?" Boone asked, sweat was visible on his forehead.

"Sorry Craig, but we got held up in there by security." Ivan replied, Boone nodded and grumbled.

"What now?" Sarah asked

"We are going to the Strip." Ivan said "NCR command over at the Hoover Dam asked me to investigate the Omertas. They own and operate the Gomorahh hotel and casino on the Strip. NCR Command thinks that they are up to something; they may even have an arrangement with Caesar's Legion. If they are a threat to the NCR, I have been told to eliminate it."

"How strong are they?" Jim asked

"They have armed guards patrolling the casino. Nothing outside of the building though. On the surface, they seem weak enough, but I suspect that they may have a secret or two hidden away. Sadly, we can't go in there waving our rifles demanding information. We need to be a bit more discrete. But we can discuss that when we get to the Strip." When there were no other questions, Ivan nodded, turned around and led the way towards the tall buildings and faint music that was blaring in the distance.

**As you can gather, I am going straight into the main quest, starting at the Omerta section of For the Republic, Part II. It will be essentially be exactly the same as in-game up until the end, apart from the dialogue, which I will try to make up. I have already completed the game, but I can't remember any of the specific dialogue, and I'm relying on Fallout Wikia's walkthroughs for reminders on what happened. I am also avoiding almost all of the side quests to save time, apart from one from the BoS, which I will twist slightly, which will tie into the later story a little bit.**

**R&R  
**


	8. Two Headed Serpent

**Two Headed Serpent**

By midday, the group was walking through Freeside, on the outskirts of the Strip. What was left of the town was a complete mess. The best way to describe the place was that it was a dirty and violent slum. Gunshots were heard several times as the group walked along the remains of Las Vegas Boulevard, which cut directly through the town. It stank of rubbish, human waste and a hint of Jet and Psycho. The residents were dressed in rags; some were scavenging in garbage bins looking for scraps of food, their thin, malnourished bodies could barley hold the lid steady. Most of the buildings that occupied the space in the town were nothing more than burnt out skeletons of what they once were, and represented. Yet remarkably, people still found ways of living and surviving in this place. The only remotely neatly dressed people were the Kings, a band of Elvis impersonators, complete with the black haired comb-over, who had taken upon themselves to restore some degree of order in the town and those dressed in some sort of armor. Eventually, they reached the end of the area, and were standing before a dazzling gate, whose inscription said _WELCOME TO THE STRIP_ in fancy, multi-coloured neon signs. However, the area was heavily guarded by security robots.

These robots were nothing like Jim and Sarah had ever seen in the Capital Wasteland; they were slightly bigger than a Sentry Bot and they balanced on a single wheel. They were covered in thick blue armor plating and sported a television screen in its centre. The screen showed a simple black and white image of a soldier wearing a helmet and smoking a cigar. Before they approached the gate, Ivan stopped them and walked over towards a derelict building off the the road, out of sight from the gate.

"What is it?" Jim asked. Ivan revealed a N99 pistol and a suppressor, which he started to install on the pistol's threaded barrel.

"Casinos don't allow weapons inside their buildings. However, they do not search you if you willingly hand over your weapons, for example, our rifles. It's easy to smuggle in something small, like a pistol. I find it necessary for personal protection."

"What about the robots?" Sarah asked as both of them retrieved their own sidearms from their hip holsters and concealed them under their armor.

"Don't worry about the Securitrons. If you don't shoot someone on the Strip or shoot them, they will ignore you." Ivan replied. Ivan also retrieved a small piece of paper from his rucksack, which was his fake passport that allowed him into the strip. The group emerged from the side street and walked towards the gate. When they approached the main guard by the gate, the robot spoke.

"Identification please." the robot asked. Ivan handed it his 'passport'. The secruitron took it and inserted it into a port on its body, and it came back quickly, and it was handed back to Ivan.

"Identification valid. Welcome back to the Strip, Mr Zzzz-hhhhuuu-kkkoovv." the secruitron said, it obviously wasn't designed to pronounce Slavic names, which must have been very uncommon in the United States during the 21st century. Ivan retrieved the passport and the group walked past the securitron, their weapons were slung across their chest. A securitron noticed this and sent data to the main guard at the gate, who processed Ivan's passport. Once the robot's AI analyzed this data, which took a quarter of a second, it spoke once more.

"Please remember to keep all weapons holstered while visiting the strip, for your safety and the safety of others around you." The group stopped and complied with its demand.

"We should count ourselves lucky." Ivan stated "NCR soldiers are not allowed any weapons within the Strip."

The large steel doors opened to reveal a place that was alien in comparison to Freeside. The roads and sidewalks were clean; the street was flanked by large and intact buildings that were covered in bright multi-coloured neon signs, like the gate, and in the case of Gomorrah on their right, exotic looking decorations which involved large flaming torches. On the street, there was a steady stream of well-dressed and well fed people, a stark contrast with Freeside, walking about the Strip and in and out of casinos along the street. However, Sarah noticed that the tallest building on the Strip, the Lucky 38 casino according to the sign, had no visitors whatsoever, and the door in was guarded by securitrons.

"What's the story with the Lucky 38?" Sarah asked as they walked towards the Gomorrah

"That's the casino that is home to Mr House, de-facto head of the Strip. On October 23rd 2077, he sealed himself inside the casino, and not a living soul has been inside since. Well, that was the case a week ago. I've been inside and I've met House, the place gives me the creeps." Ivan stated as they reached the door to the Gomorrah. "Follow my lead and keep your cool." he told them. Jim and Sarah nodded. Ivan opened the door to the casino.

The lobby was small; it only contained a guard, a reception and its subsequent receptionist. However, beyond the lobby was a large open room, in the centre were people sitting at tables or in front of a small box, inserting chips and cranking a lever. Like the people on the street, these people were smartly dressed. They were either consuming alcoholic drinks or were laughing with peers, in some cases both. This sort of atmosphere, never minding how anachronistic the place was, was something that Jim and Sarah had never expected to see in their life time. It was almost like they were in the 21st century again, not the 23rd

_Almost._

Once they walked in, a guard dressed in a cream suit, wearing a hat and sunglasses stopped them.

"Hand over your weapons." he ordered. His accent almost sounded forced and artificial. Ivan stared at the man for several seconds and then he removed his rifles from his back, along with his backpack and handed them to the guard. The rest of the group followed suit. The guard walked over behind the reception and locked them in a gun locker.

"You'll get these back once you leave." he announced.

"Thanks" Ivan replied. He walked past the guard to the reception. The receptionist looked up and smiled broadly.

"Welcome to the Gomorrah hotel and casino. How can I help you?" she asked pleasantly. Ivan rested his arms on the desk.

"You have a debt." he stated, the receptionist's smile flattened. "I'd like some information." he said in a low voice. The receptionist glanced at the guard, who was concentrating on the door, she then looked back at Ivan.

"Okay, whatever you say." she whispered. "There's a guy called Cachino, he's a low level lieutenant. He's been doing extra jobs on the side, without the knowledge of the bosses"

"Anything else?" Ivan asked

"That's all I can tell you."

"What room is he staying in?" Ivan asked. The receptionist hesitated. Ivan fished out a small brown bag that made a metallic rustling sound; it was filled with bottle caps.

"Maybe these will change your mind." he suggested. The receptionist hesitated, glancing again at the guard. Once she confirmed that he wasn't looking, she quickly retrieved the bag off of the desk. She then opened a drawer and placed a key on the desk several seconds later.

"Room 319" she whispered. Ivan nodded. "I'm sorry that I couldn't be more helpful." she said, louder.

"It's not a problem, thank you." Ivan replied, playing along.

"Have a nice day" the receptionist said as Ivan walked away from the desk, towards the main casino floor. The only logical method of finding this guy that Ivan could think of was to simply ask around.

He asked several guards, who simply told him to "fuck off". However, he did not expect Cachino to find him.

The group was approached by a slightly overweight and bald man, dressed in a similar suit to the rest of the guards.

"Who the fuck are you, and why the fuck are you looking for me?" he asked bluntly.

"Cachino" Ivan started, stepping forward from the group "My name is Ivan Zhukov, and these are my business associates." he said, motioning to the group behind him. "I've been hearing that you have been doing jobs on the side, without the knowledge of either Salvatore or Nero." Cachino cut him off before he could continue.

"How about you do yourself and your friends a favour and get out of my fucking face. I don't have time for you and your bullshit, and neither do the bosses." he replied and he then turned and walked away.

"What an asshole." Jim muttered under his breath.

"What now?" Sarah asked as Ivan turned to face the group.

"We get into his room on the third floor. It's obvious that he has something to hide. There's an elevator at the other end of the casino."

"What are we looking for?" Sarah asked

"I don't know, anything that implicates him in something. I'm pretty sure that he isn't the mastermind behind this potential plan, though. It has to go to the top". A minute later, the group was in an elevator going to the third floor.

"Try to use non-lethal force for the time being." Ivan informed the group as he took out his concealed N99, the rest of the group did the same, checking the magazines and pulling the slides. As the elevator slowly came to a halt, Ivan held the weapon up, pointing the muzzle at the door. From what he could remember, there were two patrols on the floor, and one was guarding the express elevator, which was directly opposite the elevator that they were standing in. When the doors slid open, he knew that they had a degree of luck on their side. The second patrol was in the middle of his rounds, and was walking through the foyer, and there was a guard at the express elevator. The group stormed out of the elevator with their weapons drawn. The guard who had been patrolling was too surprised to act quickly enough, but the elevator guard made a motion towards something in the inside of his jacket.

"Don't even think about" Boone warned. The guard froze, then slowly removed his hand. Ivan walked forward and smacked him over the temple with his pistol grip. Jim did the same with the patrol, but then turned around quickly to face Ivan

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"It's the only logical thing to do. Come on; let's move them into the supply closet over there. By the time they come to, we will be long gone." Ivan replied. Jim nodded and did so; he saw no point in causing a scene. Once the guards were inside the closet, the group walked back through the foyer and turned left in a long hallway. There were two rooms at the end of the hallways, which were obviously more exclusive that the run-of-the-mill hotel room. They stopped outside room 319 as Ivan took the key out and inserted into the lock under the door knob. He stopped mid-way to tell the rest of the group to clear the room once he had opened the door. He then continued and turned the key slowly, and then slowly twisting the knob as to make as little disturbance as possible. As he opened the door, Ivan had sidearm ready in his free hand, which was pointing towards the open room as he opened the door. Once he had completely opened the door, he turned his head and made a motion for the group to move. The rest of the group moved past him and into the two story room. Jim and Sarah moved upstairs while Ivan and Boone cleared the ground floor. Once everyone had declared the fact that the room was clear, they regrouped on the stairs.

"Let's search this place for anything that we can use to incriminate this guy." Ivan said, the group nodded, and Ivan added "Keep it clean, we don't want to ransack the place." Jim and Sarah then moved back upstairs and Ivan and Boone searched the ground floor. Sarah already knew the best place to start, which was Cachino's study. She walked over to the desk and, unsurprisingly, it was locked. She knelt down in front of the lock and took out her combat knife and pulled a pin from her hair, which she stretched and inserted into the lock along with the combat knife under it. She fiddled with the pin, while turning the knife clockwise and after 15 seconds, the lock gave way and allowed her access. When she pulled open the drawer, she found only one thing; a brown leather journal. She opened it and scanned through it. It covered Cachino's business of selling chems and weapons, which was obviously for his own personal gain, which went behind his gang's regulations. The journal also covered, in disturbing detail, his sexual encounters with the prostitutes who worked at the casino. After every one, he vowed it would be his last.

"Hey guys!" Sarah shouted "I found something." It took just a few seconds for everyone to gather outside the door, Sarah handed Ivan the journal, who also scanned through.

"This is great! It should be more than enough to get Cachino to talk. If this were to ever get out, he would be killed by the leadership. He knows that. Come on, let's find him again." Ivan said, turning towards the stairs.

Five minutes later, the group was walking towards "The Brimstone", the Gomorrah's bar. The bar was massive, Jim and Sarah were once again perplexed by the building and its atmosphere and how it wasn't even close to their imagination. The bar was actually mostly taken up by a stage, which had a tall metal pole at the end of it. There was a woman, who was just about naked, dancing on and around it. Jim, while he knew it was bad to stare, couldn't stop staring at her. This earned him an elbow to the ribs from Sarah.

"Ow" he exclaimed "Sorry" he mumbled, Sarah chuckled quietly. Ivan stopped and scanned the bar, he found Cachino at the other end, slumped over a table drinking a bottle of whiskey. The group approached him, and he looked up at them venomously.

"What the fuck do you want now?" Cachino asked, taking another gulp of whiskey. Ivan didn't respond. He took a chair and sat down in front of Cachino. He then revealed the journal, which incited a reaction from Cachino, his face went pale.

"Where did you fucking get that?"

"We are a resourceful group." Ivan stated. "I wonder what your bosses will think when they read this. Sex, Chems and Arms Dealing. Pretty volatile mix, no?"

"Please" Cachino begged "Don't hand that over. I'll be a dead man. I'll give you whatever you want."

"What I want Cachino, is information. My question is simple. What are the Omertas planning?" Ivan asked sternly.

"Okay, I don't know any specifics but..." Ivan gave him a frustrated look "...but I know it's something big. Whatever Sal and Nero are planning, they are not sharing, and I know that there is something wrong. They hired two guys off the street to oversee some parts of whatever operation they are running. Their names are Clanden and Troike. Both of them have rooms, but both men frequent the Zorrah club for VIPs. Clanden's room is 158, Troike's is 162." Cachino said "I've gotta warn you though, I've heard that these guys have done some fucked up shit since they arrived here, especially Clanden. In fact, when you find him, kill him. That sick fuck deserves it."

"Can you give us increased access?" Ivan asked

"Yes" Cachino replied.

"Here" Ivan said, tossing the journal across the table.

"Thanks" Cachino said, grabbing the journal. Ivan got up from his seat and the group walked out of the bar, following the signs towards the block of rooms in which the two men were staying.

Their search of Troike's deserted room had failed to conjure up any sort of evidence against the Omerta leadership. As the group walked towards Clanden's room, Jim stopped in the middle of the hallway as he caught a whiff of an odour that he knew all too well; rotting flesh.

"What is it?" Ivan asked as Jim revealed his sidearm.

"Something was killed in that room." Jim replied in a low voice. The others shared a look of concern, and they too drew their sidearms as they approached the doors. Sarah again used a pin from her hair along with her combat knife to pick the lock on the hotel room's door. After several seconds of tinkering, the lock clicked. Ivan opened the door with his sidearm at face level. As the door opened, the stench became more and more profound. There was blood smeared on the walls and along to floor. The trail led through a door, which suggested that the body was dragged into the next room. The group split up again; Jim and Sarah followed the blood trail while Ivan and Boone cleared the rest of the suite. What the two Sentinels found was horrifying. On top of a large table were the remains of a decomposing female body, butchered with a large knife, and hooks that were hanging from the walls.

"Son of a bitch" Jim said quietly. Sarah was shocked, she didn't reply. Her initial surprise turned into anger. However, their thoughts were cut short by the sound of movement outside the door to the suite, and several seconds later, they heard the door knob turn and the door opening. They readied their pistols and moved into the hallway, aiming them at their new arrival. Clanden stopped cold in his tracks when Jim and Sarah appeared, he knew that had had nowhere to go, and they had found the body of the "escort" that he had tortured and murdered.

"Who the fuck are you?" Clanden spat. Sarah stepped forward and punched him in the nose, feeling it crack.

"Your worst nightmare." Sarah replied. Ivan and Boone then came around the corner with their weapons drawn, but stopped when they saw Clanden on the ground. Sarah dragged him up and shoved him against the wall. She stepped back and pressed the muzzle of her pistol against his head.

"Jim, search him" Sarah ordered. Jim was taken aback by her sudden outburst, but he couldn't blame her. While they held the same rank, she was technically still his superior, and he obliged. During the frisk, he found a .44 Magnum six-shot revolver, spare ammo, and keys to the VIP club and a safe key. Ivan took the safe key and walked back towards the room to look for a safe, in which he found tapes, whose contents didn't look good for both Troike and Clanden.

When he returned Clanden was sitting on a couch, clutching his nose, from which blood was gushing.

"Okay Clanden." Ivan started "Let's make this easier for all of us. Why were you hired by the Omertas?" Clanden simply spat blood at his feet.

"Fuck you." he replied. Ivan sighed as he aimed his pistol and shot Clanden just above the kneecap. Clanden screamed in agony.

"Let's try that again. Why were you hired by the Omertas?" Ivan repeated.

"Go to hell" Clanden replied through gritted teeth. Ivan sighed again as he fired a second round, above the second kneecap, Clanden screamed again. Ivan didn't like torture, but he was the kind of person that firmly believed that the ends justified the means. If the Omertas had the equipment needed and the support of Caesar's Legion, they could open a second front in the struggle for New Vegas and the Hoover Dam. Their efforts could potentially paralyse a section of the NCRs command and control structure based out of McCarran Field. Not to mention the fact that the man he was torturing had himself tortured and murdered an innocent girl. _Karma's a bitch_ Ivan mused to himself.

Clanden, however, stayed silent. Ivan decided to go further. He grasped his military combat knife from its sheath on his shoulder. He grasped Clanden's wrist and rested the blade at the base of his middle finger.

"Last chance" Ivan said firmly. Clanden did not respond. From the look on his face, he guessed that he didn't believe that Ivan would do it.

"Your funeral, Clanden". Ivan put a significant amount of force into the cut. It sliced through the skin and roughly through the thin finger bone. Clanden's finger fell from his hand in a bloody mess. Clanden screamed once again and started to sob.

"I can keep going." Ivan stated. "You have nine more digits on your hands. 10 on your feet. Maybe an ear. Then, we may have to go for-"

"STOP" Clanden sobbed "I'll tell you." he continued to sob for several seconds, and he then continued. "Me and Troike were hired to act and independent intermediaries between Caesar and the Omerta leadership. We also oversaw the transportation of the shipments of weapons and ammunition the Caesar provided us with. They plan to unleash an insurrection against the NCR once Caesar attacks the dam."

"Thank you" Ivan said. He aimed his pistol for a final time and shot Clanden in the forehead, a small line of blood travelled down his face. The room stayed silent for several moments, all of them were thinking the same thing: he deserved it. The only justice in the Wasteland was death.

"Come on" Ivan said "Let's go find Troike in the club." He pressed the magazine release button on his pistol and replaced the half empty magazine with a fresh one. The group left Clanden as he was, the smell from either body in the suite would eventually attract some attention, but if someone found the body, it would be easy to ascertain that the Omertas found out what Clanden did to one of their girls and made him pay the price. Cachino would probably vouch for that. The group walked out of the suite and locked the door behind them. They them made their way through the hustle and bustle that was the casino floor and arrived in front of a guarded door.

"Cachino told me to let you guys through. Troike is inside, he's the only one in there as far as I know." the guard stated as he opened the door to allow them passage. The Zorrah VIP club wasn't that much more luxurious that the main club but the rooms were filled with comfortable looking furniture and bedding. Each room had a small private bar facility too. The first room was deserted, however, on their way to a second; they found a locked metal utility door, which stuck out in a place like this. They continued to the next room where they found a single man lying on one of the beds alone. The group levelled their sidearms at the resting figure.

"Get up!" Boone shouted. Troike looked up groggily, he was obviously high on something, and quickly put his head back down on the bed.

"Ughhhh..." Troike stammered "Whatt doo you assshoolees waaant?" he asked deliriously. Ivan nodded his head to Boone, who stepped forward and dragged Troike from his bedding.

"Heyy!" he shouted "Wattchh itt!"

"Troike, where are the weapons shipments from Caesar that you and Clanden moderated?" Ivan asked sternly. Troike just stared at him with sleepy, half open eyes which had dark rims around them.

"Clanndenn?" Troike stammered "Thatt asshoollle. Hee thought that he couuulddd controolll mee. Hee forrced mee to do alll of the woork whille he fuuccked some whoorrreee. Basssttarrd, he caaann goo andd fucckk hiimmseelff once I blooowww thoosse guuunnsss too helll wiiitthhh thhheee thermmitee in myyy baggg." he babbled, waving his arms towards a bag that lay near the bed, with the empty shells of Med-X, Jet, Psycho and hybrids littered around it.

_This is fucking hopeless_ Ivan thought.

"Boone search him. He won't tell us anything." Ivan ordered, Boone complied, ignoring the weary protests of the druggie. Boone handed Ivan a utility key, which no doubt opens the nearby door.

"James, grab that bag and come with me." Jim nodded and retrieved the bag.

"Craig and Sarah, stay here and give our high friend some company." The two of them nodded, Ivan and Jim walked out of the room and stopped at the utility door. Ivan unlocked it and they descended into what looked like a bunker or an old air raid shelter. While they knew that there wasn't anyone down there, they kept up their guard. They came to another door and it opened to reveal a large room, filled to the brim with crates. When they were opened, they found that they contained a very large variety of weapons, from pistols to sniper rifles and grenades. They also had more than enough ammunition to supply a small war. Jim knelt down and slowly opened the duffle bag. Inside were bomb components. Along with it was a vial containing a brownish powder, thermite. The bomb was simple enough to assemble. He rigged it to a remote detonator and they vacated the room sealing both doors behind them. The bunker below them would contain the heat produced from the thermite combustion which would melt anything in the vicinity. Once the final door was sealed, he pressed the button on the detonator. A small thud below them signified that they were successful.

"Great." Ivan stated as he walked back into the furnished room "Let's go and find Cachino and tell him that the Omerta's plans are gone."

"What about this guy?" Sarah asked

"Leave him. I'd be surprised if he doesn't spontaneously combust with the amount of chems he has flowing throw his veins." Ivan replied. The team walked out as Troike fell back on the bed.

Five minutes later, they were again walking through the Brimstone. It was pretty obvious that nobody felt the thermite explosion 25 metres below them. Cachino was still in his seat, however, he had stopped drinking the whiskey, he was now drinking a Sunset Sarsaparilla. Ivan sat down in front of him, the others stood behind him.

"It's done. Clanden was a slimy motherfucker. He tortured and murdered one of your girls. After beating it out him, he admitted that he and Troike were independent intermediaries between your bosses and Caesar. They also smuggled weapons caches into the casino and stored them in a bunker below the Zorrah club. We burned it out with Thermite." Ivan stated

"What about Troike?" Cachino asked

"With the amount of chems he's got in his system right now, I'd be surprised if he's alive by sundown." Ivan replied

"Good. However, your actions have drawn the attention of the bosses. They want to talk to you and you alone." Cachino said. Ivan sighed; he knew it would come to this.

"Fine, lead the way." Ivan said as he got up from his chair.

"Get a drink or something" Ivan told the others. "Stay alert though, this won't end well."

As Cachino led Ivan away, the group sat down and they ordered three beers. They constantly scanned the bar for threats and suspicious activity, letting their hard earned battlefield experience take over. All three of them had one hand hovering by their pistol, ready to defend themselves at a seconds notice.

Cachino led Ivan up a flight of stairs and stopped in front of an old wooden door.

"Here." Cachino told Ivan, revealing a sawed off double barrel 12 gauge shotgun. Ivan shook his head, revealing the concealed sidearm. Cachino nodded and concealed it once more, and opened the door. Inside was a small office where Big Sal and Nero were waiting for them.

"Take a seat, Mr Zhukov" Sal said, motioning to the sofa in the corner of the room. Ivan complied, Cachino stood by the door. The two leaders stood before Ivan, and Sal began to speak.

"You see Mr Zhukov, we own this casino. We hear things, it comes with the territory. However, things became very unpleasant for our business when we heard that a prominent mercenary, one who has been spearheading the NCR's recent offensives, shows up at our hotel with three team members who torture and execute one of my employees." Ivan sat back and discreetly rested his hand on his side arm.

"I know about your agreement with Caesar and your weapons caches." Ivan stated "What did Caesar tell you? That he will spare you and allow your tribe to thrive? That's bullshit, and you know it! He will destroy you if they get to the Strip, or at best they will absorb you and turn you into slaves!"

"You're lying!" Nero shouted

"Also, your weapons caches are nothing more than smouldering ashes, I destroyed them." Ivan finished smugly. It was the final straw. Both Sal and Nero drew their weapons, .45 pistols. Ivan quickly stood and did the same, Cachino revealed the shotgun and stepped forward to Ivan's aid.

Neither side shot first.

Jim, Sarah and Boone sipped their beers, but they were not any less alert. Then, Jim saw a guard at the far end of the bar reaching into his jacket and taking out his pistol. It could be only one thing, he and the rest of the group revealed their side arms, each kicking down a table for improvised cover. The first guard was sloppy, and immediately pulled the trigger. The crowd, already confused by their actions, panicked with fear and they ran out of the bar en masse. Boone shot the first guard twice in the chest as the rest of the guards responded to the fire. A large fire fight ensued; the sound of glass breaking was never ending as bullets streaked past their heads.

Their trigger fingers itched. Then, a large fire fight could be heard raging outside. Ivan was distracted for a second. Sal took his chance. He aimed for Ivan's head and pulled the trigger.

_Click_

He pulled the trigger again.

_Click_

Nero pulled the trigger on his own pistol.

_Click_

"SON OF A BITCH!" Sal roared. Ivan gave him a smug smile.

"No firing pins?" Ivan laughed "Your buddy Caesar double crossed you then?" he asked. Before Sal could respond, he pulled his trigger. The low cough of the suppressor was the only sound it made. A small hole formed in the middle of Sal's forehead and he fell. Cachino fired his shotgun at Nero's chest. Due to their close proximity, Nero flew across the room as the powerful 12 gauge pellets hit him and crashed against the wall. Ivan immediately sprung into action.

"Tell your men to hold their fucking fire!" Ivan snapped as he ran out the door.

They could feel the relatively low powered pistol rounds ricochet off the think tables. But Jim, Sarah and Boone's luck was running out. They were getting attacked on three sides. Then, a voice roared across the hall.

"CEASE FIRE!" Cachino roared. The guards complied; however, they did not lower their weapons from the group crouching behind the tables. Ivan jogged over to them

"Come on, let's grab our gear and get the fuck outta here. We're done." he said. The group nodded and slowly revealed themselves. Cachino escorted them through the level firearms to the exit.

"Sorry" he simply stated. "Sal and Nero wanted them to eliminate your group. They didn't know that you were armed however. Once the fallout has been cleared, you will be welcome to return to the casino."

"Thanks Cachino." Ivan said, shaking his hand.

"Come on, let's report back." He said as he harnessed his backpack and gathered his weapons. The group did the same, and they left Gomorrah and headed back towards Hoover Dam.

**Well, it took a while. If you want something to blame, blame Mass Effect. I bought ME2 when I saw it in the shop for PS3. I started off with barely any interest for it, I had heard it was a good game but I knew nothing of the universe. When I played it for a few hours, I was blown away to say the least. It's sad that Microsoft hold the publishing rights for the first game, it won't ever appear on the PS3 :(. I bought ME1 on Steam for £10, even though I knew I had no chance of playing it. I tried it for a laugh, and it couldn't compile the shaders. There's another game to play once I get a good PC. It joins the ranks of STALKER, Portal 2 and ARMA 2. **

**Anyway, R&R. I'll be skipping out House, sorry. It will be mentioned that he is dead, but I won't go much further. We will now be dealing with the Brotherhood of Steel. **


End file.
